GIFT   OF 


K 


UNIVERSITY   EXTENSION   MANUALS 
EDITED  BY  PROFESSOR  KNIGHT 


El  GLISH    COLONIZATION 
AND   EMPIRE 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/englishcolonizatOOcaldrich 


English  Colonization 


and 


Empire 


BY 


ALFRED   CALDECOTT,   M.A. 

(CAMB.    AND    LOND.) 

FELLOW    AND    DEAN    OF    ST.    JOHN'S    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE 

SOMETIME    UNIVERSITY    EXTENSION    LECTURER 

UNDER    THE    CAMBRIDGE    SYNDICATE 


'Of  all  the  results  of  English  HLtoi<y  nunc'  is  ocmujarabit^o  J.he  creation  of 
this  enormous,  prosperous,  in  great  part  homogeneous  Realm,  and  it  can  be 
paralleled  by  nothing  in  the  his»ory  o^ny^othgr  ^'taieVo-^P^ofrJs^c*  S^eley. 


NEW    YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
743   &   745    BROADWAY 

1891 

[All  rights  reserved] 


cd^ 


%]X 


r*  /*****] 


PREFACE. 


In  this  Manual  the  broad  principles  laid  down  in 
the  General  Plan  of  the  Series  have  been  kept  in  view, 
expressing,  as  they  do,  the  method  of  lecturing  upon  the 
subject  adopted  by  the  writer  as  a  University  Extension 
Lecturer  in  the  years  1 880-1 890.  The  actual  course  of 
events  is  sketched  in  a  general  way,  and  afterwards  the 
more  important  phases  of  the  history  are  treated  separately. 
The  history  is  studied  in  the  light  of  Political  Science, 
Political  Economy  and  Ethnology,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
with  close  reference  to  the  observations  and  opinions 
of  travellers,  statesmen,  and  colonists;  while  Poetry  and 
Fiction  have  also  been  recognised. 

The  fact  that  so  many  problems  of  Imperial  interest  are 
still  being  worked  out,  and  that  this  particular  time  is  one 
of  great  activity  and  considerable  change,  has  proved  a 
difficulty.  Some  questions  still  open  will  be  solved,  or  the 
conditions  which  give  rise  to  them  will  be  altered,  before 
this  century  closes,  and  others  will,  no  doubt,  be  opened. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  treatment  here  given  will  enable 
the  student  to  follow  these  developments  with  increased 
interest,  and  to  place  them  in  proper  connexion  with  the 
history  of  the  Empire  and  of  Colonization  generally. 


264216 


MAPS   AND   DIAGRAMS. 


PAGE 

France  and  Spain,  before  they  were  single  kingdoms,  circa  1400  .         .        7 

Spain.     Dominion  of  Charles  V  in  Europe 19 

„        Dominion  of  Charles  V  in  America "19 

The  Early  Partition  of  America 28 

The  Thirteen  Colonies,  1664-1783 48 

India.    As  left  by  Clive,  1767 62 

„        As  left  by  Wellesley,  1805 62 

,,        As  left  by  Lord  Hastings,  1823 63 

,,        As  left  by  Dalhousie,  1856 63 

„        As  left  by  Lord  Dufferin,  1888 64 

British  Empire,  1690 86 

„  „        1790 88 

,,  ,,        1890         ..........      90 

South  Africa  in  1890  (coloured) To/ace  p.  no 

The  Partition  of  Africa  (coloured) To  face  />.  112 

West  Indies.     Leeward  and  Windward  Islands 147 

Fifty  Years'  Growth  of  the  Trade  of  the  British  Empire         .        .         .172 
Trade  of  European  Countries  with  their  Dependencies  .         .        .         .173 

Distribution  of  the  Trade  of  the  United  Kingdom 186 

Distribution  of  the  Trade  of  India 187 

Map  and  Diagram  comparing  population  of  Australia  and  British  Isles    209 
The  Growth  of  Aryan  Predominance  (coloured)      .        .   \ 
The  Races  of  Mankind  before  the  European  Expansion  \  Between  218,  219 
(coloured) j 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE 

Introduction    .  1-13 

European  Civilization 1 

The  British  Empire 8 


CHAPTER   II. 

Pioneer  Period 14-26 

Portugal 15 

Spain 18 

England 22 


CHAPTER  III. 

International  Struggle 27~43 

With  Spain 27 

With  Holland 29 

With  France 32 


CHAPTER   IV. 
Development  and  Separation  of  America        .        .  44-57 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  English  in  India 58-85 


Contents. 


PAGK 
87-I20 

87 

97 
101 
105 
116 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Development 
§  1.  West  Indies     . 
§  2.  Australia. 
§  3.  Canada     . 
§  4.  Africa 
§  5.  Scattered  Acquisitions 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Government  of  the  Empire 1 21-164 

§  1.  Forms  and  Methods 123 

§  2.   Confederation.         .         .  .         .         .  145 

§  3.  Imperial  Federation 149 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Trade  and  Trade  Policy 165-189 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Supply  of  Labour 

§  1.  Native  Peoples 


§  2.  Negro  Slavery . 

§  3.  Coolie  Labour 

§  4.  Convict  Labour 

§  5.  Free  Emigration 


90-215 
191 
192 
196 
199 
202 


CHAPTER   X. 
Native  Races 216-235 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Education  and  Religion 236-257 

CHAPTER  XII. 
General  Reflections 258-274 

APPENDIX. 
Books  of  Reference    . 275-277 


ENGLISH   COLONIZATION  AND 
EMPIRE 


CHAPTER    I. 

Introduction. 

The  Movements  of  Civilization.     European  Civilization. 
The  British  Empire. 

The  civilization  of.  mankind  has  passed  through  many 
alternate  phases  of  diffusion  and  concentration.  There  appear 
always  to  have  been  what  we  may  regard  as  small  areas 
of  light  gleaming  out  from  wide  fields  where  illumination 
was  faint  and  dull.  In  the  very  early  childhood  of  the 
race  uniformity  may  have  prevailed,  but  as  soon  as  anything 
of  the  nature  of  what  is  usually  known  as  history  began, 
divergences  appeared.  Men  moved  away  from  the  cradle 
and  nursery  in  Central  Asia,  dispersing  into  different  zones : 
and  afterwards  it  is  probable  that  Ocean  and  Land  made 
some  exchanges  of  territory,  fresh  islands  and  peninsulas 
appearing  and  aiding  in  the  cleaving  of  the  Human  Family 
into  Races.  Some  were  to  settle  down,  some  to  make 
progress,  and  some,  it  would  seem,  to  degenerate.  The 
chief  centres  of  civilization  appear  to  have  been: — (i)  the 
basins  of  the  Chinese  rivers,  (2)  the  Ganges  plain,  (3)  the 
Euphrates  valley,  (4)  the  Eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  (5)  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  In  these,  men  had  settled  homes, 
agriculture  and   rudimentary  manufactures   were   pursued, 

B 


tt  Introduction.  [Ch.  i. 

property  was  established  ;  in  short,  there  were  here  sufficient 
human  relations,  both  industrial  and  legal,  to  form  the  basis 
of  States,  when  in  other  regions  men  were  still  in  tribes  and 
hordes.  Whilst  in  these  favoured  districts  men  were  ploughing 
fields  and  building  cities  and  temples,  elsewhere  there  were 
such  peoples  as  the  Tartar  occupants  of  the  elevated  lands 
of  Asia,  without  any  progressive  civilization,  making  inroads 
into  the  settled  countries,  but  vanishing  again,  having  ac- 
complished nothing;  and  such  peoples  as  the  Australian 
aboriginals,  the  Hottentots  and  Bushmen  of  Southern  Africa, 
and  the  Negro  tribes  in  incessant  restlessness  and  unpro- 
gressive  change.  To  Chinese  civilization  we  can  only  allude, 
but  we  must  not  quite  forget  it :  for  it  existed  throughout 
historic  times,  and  there  is  reason  for  believing  that  it 
was  more  perceptible  in  its  influence  upon  other  nations 
in  early  times  than  afterwards,  until  again  quite  lately.  But 
its  influence  was  scanty  and  indirect  at  most,  and  did  not 
penetrate  far  westward  during  the  centuries  when  the 
European  nations  were  being  formed.  The  Indian  region 
will  concern  us  more  closely  because  the  barrier  between  it 
and  Europe  was  often  passed,  and,  by  means  of  intermediate 
nations,  it  had  some  important  influence.  With  the  peoples 
who  inhabited  the  valleys  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates,  and 
the  coast  of  Phoenicia,  we  had  closer  connexion,  as  they 
contributed  some  important  elements  to  our  own  civilization. 
From  the  history  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  of  Tyre  and  her 
colonies,  and  of  Persia,  we  pass  to  that  of  the  cities,  islands, 
and  colonies  of  Greece,  and  then  to  that  of  the  great  State 
into  which  Rome  welded  the  peoples  of  Western  Asia, 
Southern  Europe,  and  Northern  Africa.  When  this  welding 
had  accomplished  its  purpose,  the  centre  of  progress  moved 
slightly  more  to  the  North  and  West,  and  in  the  country 
between  the  Carpathians  and  the  Atlantic  was  developed  the 
first  civilization  that  seems  likely  to  be  common  to  the 
whole  human  race. 

The  world  to-day  shows  us  our  race  still  ranged  in  great 
masses,  but  all  in  some  contact.  The  Chinese  mass  of 
400  millions,  the  Indian  mass  of  300  millions,  the  European 


Ch.  I.]  The  Movements  of  Civilization.  3 

mass  of  300  millions,  having  accomplished  their  separate 
developments  in  isolation,  have  been  brought  into  touch  with 
one  another,  and,  with  the  looser  fragments  of  the  Malay 
races,  the  African  tribes,  and  the  Polynesians,  are  now  being 
moulded  into  a  single  community  of  mankind.  In  all  this 
change  the  history  of  Europe  is  of  pre-eminent  importance. 
If  at  first  man  found  it  easier  to  deal  with  Nature  in  the 
warmer  zones  of  the  earth's  surface,  he  has  since  found  that 
his  own  capacities  were  called  into  more  intense  activity  in 
the  temperate  regions.  ■  The  true  theatre  of  History,'  says 
Hegel,  '  is  the  temperate  zone.'  It  has  always  been  found 
that  long  sojourning  in  the  tropics  enervates  :  at  this  moment 
the  dwellers  in  the  Ganges  valley  would  be  at  the  mercy  of 
Afghan  and  Nepaulese  mountain-nations  were  it  not  that  we 
have  undertaken  to  guard  them.  Again  and  again  the  cooler 
climes  have  sent  their  wholesomely  nurtured  hordes  to  reap 
the  fruits  of  the  labours  of  enfeebled  nations  dwelling  in  the 
milder  regions,  either  to  return  with  spoil,  or  to  be  mingled 
with  the  conquered ;  themselves  after  a  time  of  brief  pros- 
perity to  be  subjected  to  a  like  treatment  in  their  turn. 
It  is  in  Europe  that  the  greatest  progress  has  been  attained  : 
in  this  temperate  region  permanence  has  been  at  last  secured, 
and  from  it  the  unifying  influences  have  sprung.  And  it  is 
this  that  constitutes  our  subject :  the  diffusion  of  European 
civilization  over  the  face  of  the  inhabited  and  habitable 
world.  All  other  movements  were  but  preparatory,  as  it  were, 
for  this.  The  Celts  and  Pelasgians  spread  into  Europe, 
other  Aryans  passed  into  India,  the  Saracens  made  a  new 
Northern  Africa,  and  the  effects  of  these  movements  are 
permanent :  but  in  the  outward  movement  of  Europeans  we 
have  what  there  is  some  ground  for  regarding  as  the  last 
great  movement  of  all,  the  final  settlement  of  Man  upon 
the  earth.     Here  first  we  find — 

(i)  A  knowledge  of  the  whole  surface  of  our  planet.  In 
its  general  aspects  this  knowledge  is  final :  the  shape  of  the 
earth,  the  proportion  of  land  to  water ;  its  mountains,  its 
great  river-basins,  its  islands,  all  are  marked  down.  Man 
surveys  his  home  at  last. 

B  2 


4  Introduction.  [Ch.  i. 

(ii)  An  increase  of  practical  mastery  over  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  amounting  to  a  transformation  :  the  ocean  is  a  high 
road  ;  space-obstacles  yield  to  steam,  and  time-obstacles  to 
electricity. 

(iii)  A  recognition,  both  scientific  and  popular,  of  the 
oneness  of  the  Human  Family.  There  may  still  linger  in 
some  quarters  doubt  as  to  unity  of  origin,  and  in  others  as  to 
unity  of  destiny,  but  on  the  whole  the  science  and  the  senti- 
ment of  Europe  are  now  based  on  the  idea  of  a  single 
humanity. 

(iv)  For  rendering  this  recognition  widely  effectual  in  action 
a  material  base  is  laid  in  the  commercial  and  industrial 
organization  which  now  regards,  even  if  it  does  not  yet 
actively  embrace,  the  whole  globe.  A  freedom  and  supple- 
ness of  organization  are  obtained,  which  allow  men  to  move 
to  and  fro  on  the  earth,  and  under  the  form  of  '  Capital ' 
much  wealth  is  available  for  world-wide  use. 

(v)  A  character  of  finality  is  won  for  physical  science  ;  not 
as  to  its  limits  or  its  actual  content,  but  as  to  the  reality  of 
the  truths  in  actual  possession  :  regions  have  been  secured 
absolutely.  And  thus  knowledge  has  a  world-wide  signifi- 
cance  ;  there  is  science  which  is  the  science  for  all.  Litera- 
ture must  vary  in  its  right  to  command  allegiance  ;  Art 
must  vary;  Moral  Science  has  its  {  schools' :  but  Physical 
Science  is  positive  and  for  the  world. 

(vi)  A  religious  basis  is  disclosed  transcending  peoples 
and  nations  and  languages,  '  lofty  as  the  love  of  God  and 
ample  as  the  wants  of  man.'  Religious  ideas  which  embrace 
Humanity  in  their  scope  are  making  way,  and  thousands  of 
men  and  women  place  Religion  above  Nationality  and  devote 
themselves  to  the  union  of  all  men  in  Faith  and  Hope. 

Thus  we  are  now  in  presence  of  a  great  consolidation. 
The  world  is  becoming  a  single  home,  and  the  races  of 
Mankind  a  single  family. 

Preparation. 

It  has  been  in  Europe  that  the  preparation  for  this  final 
stage  or  epoch  has  taken  place.     By  means  of  the  nations 


Ch.  i.]  The  Movements  of  Civilization.  5 

cradled  there  the  scattering  of  men  is  being  counteracted : 
not  indeed  altered  as  a  fact,  but  as  a  cause  of  differentiation 
and  division.  Upon  the  differences  developed  in  separa- 
tion, unity  is  now  being  superimposed.  The  races  which 
cannot  bear  this  are  doomed;  the  Maori  and  the  Red 
Indian  seem  unable  to  live  in  the  whiter  light,  or,  at  least, 
are  in  peril  of  losing  their  hold  on  individuality.  Those 
which  can  respond  to  the  call  out  of  isolation,  and  can  fit  into 
the  world-wide  scheme,  live  on  and  prosper ;  the  Negro,  for 
example,  seems  likely  to  be  always  the  African  branch  of  the 
family :  although  inferior  to  the  leaders,  they  can  accept  a 
lead  and  find  new  life  under  guidance.  Where  the  Chinese — 
the  heaviest  mass  of  all — will  come,  is  a  problem  which 
cannot  yet  be  solved. 

It  was  not  till  the  fifteenth  century  that  Europe  was 
ready  to  take  the  first  steps  towards  assuming  the  guidance 
of  the  world.  By  this  time  she  had  won  three  physical 
instruments  of  first-rate  importance  for  the  work :  (i) 
The  Mariner's  Compass,  which  gave  guidance  over  the 
open  sea,  and  made  water  less  separating  in  effect  than 
mountain :  just  as"  the  Mediterranean  had  joined  North 
Africa  to  Europe  in  one  stage  of  navigating  appliances, 
the  Ocean  was  to  join  all  the  Continents  together;  (2) 
the  Printing  Press,  which  recorded  and  communicated  the 
results  of  efforts  as  they  took  effect,  and  made  the  growing 
knowledge  a  common  possession ;  (3)  Gunpowder,  which 
enabled  small  bands  of  Europeans  easily  to  force  their  way 
against  whole  nations  and  tribes  of  the  twilight  and  the 
darkness.  And  in  the  moral  sphere,  Europe  had  herself -been 
'  schooled '  for  the  work  ;  disciplined  by  war,  trained  by 
commerce,  moralized  by  religion. 

The  European  nations  who  took  part  in  the  movement 
fall  into  two  groups J  :  the  Latin — Portuguese,  Spaniards, 


1  To  define  more  exactly  the  area  occupied  by  the  expanding 
races,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  fifteenth  century  witnessed  the 
withdrawal  of  South-Eastern  Europe  from  Christendom,  when  the 
Ottomans  took  Constantinople  (1453),   and  also  the   addition   of 


6  Introduction.  [Ch.  I. 

French,  and  Italians ;  and  the  Germanic  —  Germans, 
Dutch,  Scandinavians,  and  British.  The  Celts  were  mostly- 
absorbed  in  the  other  nations,  and  no  distinct  function, 
if  any,  can  be  assigned  to  them  ;  while  the  Slavs  had 
no  part.  Of  the  two  groups,  not  all  the  nations  were 
ready.  The  Italians,  not  yet  disciplined  effectively  into 
nationality,  continued  to  plod  along  old  lines  of  connexion 
with  the  East ;  but  they  contributed  very  considerably 
in  the  way  of  science  and  art  to  the  powers  of  the  other 
nations.  The  German  states  were  occupied  with  internal 
interests  ;  and  the  Scandinavian  nations,  although  for  many 
years  they  had  been  contributory  to  a  slight  diffusion  by  the 
cold  highways  of  Greenland  and  the  North- West  seas,  had  but 
little  energy  to  spare  for  enterprises  of  a  tentative  kind. 
The  work  fell,  therefore,  to  five  nations — Portugal,  Spain, 
France,  Holland,  and  Britain.  The  centres  of  activity  were 
in  Lisbon,  in  Madrid  and  Seville,  in  Paris,  in  Amsterdam, 
in  London  and  Bristol. 

Some  facts  of  European  history  illustrate  the  preparation 
of  the  races  for  an  era  of  colonization.  First,  the  internal 
consolidating  of  the  five  nations  had  attained  a  final  stage. 
Spain  had  in  1474  become  a  single  nation  :  the  kingdoms  of 
Leon  and  Castile  had  been  united  with  Aragon,  while  the  whole 
peninsula  had  been  cleared  of  the  Moor  ;  so  that  Charles  V 
wielded  the  resources  of  Spain,  Naples,  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
Milan,  and  the  Netherlands.  Meanwhile  the  Spaniard  was 
the  outcome  of  the  discipline  of  eight  centuries  of  warfare 
with  the  Moors,  warfare  of  a  peculiar  kind,  not  by  armies 
but  by  the  guerilla  method.  In  France  the  year  of  the 
loss  to  Europe  of  Constantinople  (1453)  was  the  very  date 
from  which  the  modern  French  kingdom  begins,  when 
Aquitaine  was  joined  to  the  central  realm  :  the  duchy  of 
Burgundy  was  added  in  1479,  and  that  of  Brittany  in  1491  ; 
while  a  new  height  of  moral  and  intellectual  attainment 
was  in  view,  to  be  reached  not  more  than  a  century  later, 
the  'age  of  Louis  XIV.'     As  for  the   Dutch   it  may  be 

South-Western  Europe,  when  the  Moors  were  driven  from  Spain 
(finally  in  1492). 


Ch.  I.] 


The  Movements  of  Civilization. 


sufficient  to  say  that  in  the  sixteenth  century  they  found 
themselves  developed  enough  to  desire  and  to  deserve 
their  independence,  and  strong  enough  to  win  it.  In 
Britain,  Feudalism   was  broken :   the    middle   class  was 


FRANCE  &  SPAIN     \jPoitou\ 

before  they  were  single  kingdoms 
circa  1400. 


\  Burgundy:  »£?.••'' 

o; ...     fi«J? 


Walker  &Boutallsc. 


gaining  power  :  England  and  Scotland  were  on  the  eve 
of  union,  and  Ireland  had  been  thoroughly  subjected 
(Poynings'  Law,  1479).  Our  maritime  capacities  were  well 
established,  and  we  were  moving  towards  the  new  high- 
water  mark  of  our  Elizabethan  period. 


> 


8  Introduction.  [Ch.  i. 

Secondly,  in  relation  to  one  another  these  nations  were 
drawing  off  from  endeavours  after  mutual  absorption,  and 
taking  up  instead  the  position  of  competitors  for  a  prize 
outside  themselves  :  in  their  international  policy  the  '  balance 
of  power '  idea  was  coming  to  the  front. 

A  view  of  the  whole  situation,  therefore,  makes  it  clear 
that  just  as  the  voyage  of  Columbus  was  no  sudden  and 
isolated  enterprise,  but  the  greatest  of  a  succession  of  efforts 
in  navigation  and  discovery,  so  this  new  expansion  was  by 
no  means  casual  and  unprepared  for.  There  was  no  dis- 
covery of  a  new  world  in  the  sense  that  a  new  world  was 
given  to  an  unenquiring  race  ;  and  no  outgoing  of  peoples  in 
whom  enterprise  and  energy  and  the  discipline  which  gives 
success,  were  now  first  to  appear.  As  Hegel  says,  the  crossing 
of  the  Alps  by  Julius  Caesar  was  an  event  of  the  same  order 
as  the  crossing  of  the  Atlantic  by  Christopher  Columbus. 
By  both  events  new  spheres  were  opened  out  for  peoples  ready 
to  unfold  capacities  which  were  pressing  for  development. 

Colonization. 

The  spread  of  nations  has  sometimes  proceeded  by 
migration,  i.  e.  by  a  whole  tribe  or  nation  changing  its 
abode ;  sometimes  by  overflow  into  adjacent  territories  ; 
sometimes  by  the  emigration  o>i  companies  of  people  quitting 
the  national  territory  and  taking  up  their  abode  elsewhere. 
This  last  is  what  is  meant  usually  by  '  Colonization/ 
1 A  colony,'  says  Dr.  Johnson,  is  '  a  number  of  people 
drawn  from  the  mother-country  to  inhabit  some  distant 
place.'  So  expressed  the  general  idea  is  caught ;  but  the 
definition  is  too  wide.  It  applies  to  people  who  live  in 
foreign  states,  for  we  speak  of  the  British  '  colony '  in  Moscow, 
the  American  'colony'  in  Paris.  But  we  regard  this  as 
metaphor.  The  true  definition  must  include  the  limitation 
'  remaining  in  political  connexion  with  the  mother-country  or 
assuming  political  independence.'  This  last  is  the  Greek 
sense  of  the  term:  the  colony  was  not  politically  sub- 
ordinate, but  a  strong  sentiment  of  attachment  was   sym- 


Ch.  i.]  Colonisation.  9 

bolized  by  the  continuous  keeping  up  of  a  sacred  fire  lighted 
in  the  first  instance  from  the  sacred  hearth  of  the  old 
home.  The  Romans  had  military  colonies,  of  the  character 
of  garrisons,  providing  at  once  rewards  for  military  service, 
occupation  for  disbanded  armies,  and  order  in  newly  con- 
quered countries.  The  Phoenicians,  with  their  seat  first  at 
Tyre  then  at  Carthage,  had  trading  colonies  or  factories,  held 
for  a  time  more  or  less  in  dependence.  It  is  by  colonization 
in  the  sense  (i)  of  establishing  new  homes  and  (2)  of  as- 
suming direction  of  native  populations,  chiefly  with  industrial 
or  commercial  ends  in  immediate  view,  that  European  ex- 
pansion has  been  effected.  America  is  the  great  example 
of  the  first  kind,  the  subjugation  of  the  natives  not  being 
of  sufficient  proportionate  importance  to  make  the  element 
of  conquest  or  rule  prominent,  except  in  Mexico  and  some 
parts  of  South  America.  India  is  the  great  example  of  the 
second  kind. 

We  also,  when  speaking  broadly,  include  under  the  term 
1  colonies,'  places  occupied  for  Imperial  purposes.  These 
are  usually  islands,  harbours,  or  promontories  ;  the  raison 
tfetre  of  their  occupation  is  the  attainment  of  some  naval 
or  military  advantage  for  the  empire. 

Concentrating  now  our  attention  on  England's  share  in 
what  has  been  accomplished,  let  us  glance  rapidly  at  the 
condition  of  the  English  nation  when  its  colonizing  function 
began. 

In  the  England  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  James  /we  see  a 
state,  with  territories  distinctly  defined  by  water-boundaries, 
consolidated  after  centuries  of  strife  out  of  the  various  petty 
dominions  which  had  divided  these  islands  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  The  seven  kingdoms  of  the  Heptarchy, 
the  princedom  of  Wales,  and  the  various  chieftaincies  of 
Ireland,  had  for  some  time  been  united  ;  the  long-standing 
alliance  with  certain  duchies  on  the  continent  had  been 
more  or  less  reluctantly  renounced,  and  these  had  gone 
to  their  natural  place  in  the  French  kingdom,  while  Scot- 
land was  just  entering  through  union  with  England  into  the 
open  field  of  history.     The  Reformation  was  in  full  tide  of 


io  Introduction.  [Ch.  i. 

strength,  and  that  not  only  in  the  sphere  of  ecclesiastical 
order  and  religious  belief,  and  in  renewal  of  continuity  with 
the  thought  and  art  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but  also  in  the 
freshness  and  vigour  of  independent  endeavour  to  think,  to 
admire,  and  to  find  aims  and  ends  for  conduct.  The  Church 
of  England  had  received  a  certain  degree  of  settlement,  and 
the  points  of  difference  between  those  who  could  accept  it  and 
those  who  could  not  were  being  defined.  The  teaching  of 
Erasmus,  and  Colet,  and  Ascham,  and  Cheke  was  operating 
in  the  Universities  and  in  the  new  Grammar  Schools  ;  and 
Bacon  was  preparing  the  methods  of  knowledge  for  a  wider 
and  freer  use. 

Our  population  at  this  time  was  some  five  millions  :  Harri- 
son, a  contemporary,  tells  us  that  1,172,674  men  were  enrolled 
as  able  to  bear  arms  in  1574  and  1575,  and  he  adds  that  this 
was  probably  about  two-thirds  of  the  actual  number.  In  1603 
there  were  two  million  male  communicants,  including  a  few 
recusants  ;  which  fairly  agrees  with  the  above  estimate.  The 
people  were  engaged  in  a  vigorous  and,  on  the  whole,  a  pro- 
gressive industrial  life.  True,  difficulty  was  arising  from  the 
increased  practice  of  taking  advantage  of  the  excellence  of  our 
land  as  pasture,  and  the  good  quality  of  our  cattle,  to  ex- 
change cultivation  for  grazing,  and  so  to  employ  less  labour 
in  agriculture.  But  our  manufactures  of  broad-cloths,  ker- 
seys and  friezes,  of  metal  wares,  of  beer  and  of  fells,  were  in- 
creasing, and  our  mercantile  pursuits  were  rapidly  requiring 
more  money  and  more  men.  The  looms  of  Norwich  and  of 
the  West  of  England  were  prosperous,  and  Yorkshire  towns 
were  coming  fast  into  importance  ;  the  ports  of  London,  Bris- 
tol, Hull  and  Boston,  and  many  others  now  insignificant,  were 
occupied  by  busy  mariners.  Harrison  gives  it  as  his  opinion 
that  our  shipping  was  incomparable  for  '  strength,  assurance, 
nimbleness,  and  swiftness  of  sailing,'  and  he  fortifies  his 
position  by  foreign  testimonies.  The  Queen  had  24  ships, 
there  were  135  merchant  ships  of  over  100  tons,  and  656  of 
between  100  and  40  tons.  Abroad,  our  merchants  were 
penetrating,  on  the  heels  of  travellers  of  whom  not  a  few 
were  Englishmen,  to  the  Levant,  to  the  Baltic,  and  even  to 


Ch. I]  British  Empire.  n 

Cathay  and  Tartary.  We  had  colonies,  or  '  factories '  as 
they  were  called,  at  Florence  and  Pisa,  at  Moscow,  and  in 
Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  which  were  so  numerous 
and  well-established  as  to  have  their  own  laws,  administered 
by  '  aldermen,'  under  treaties  with  the  sovereigns  of  those 
states  :  all  our  trade  was  done  in  English  ships.  Looking 
outside,  however,  we  saw  that  the  New  World  was  far  from 
being  an  unoccupied  field  into  which  we  might  freely 
extend  our  activities.  The  Eastern  routes  were  in  the 
hands  of  Portugal  or  Holland,  while  the  best  portions  of 
America  were  appropriated  by  the  most  powerful  of  the 
nations,  Spain.  The  King  of  Spain  held  Mexico,  Florida, 
Peru,  and  the  largest  of  the  West  Indian  islands ;  the  mid- 
Atlantic  and  the  Caribbean  Gulf  were  regarded  as  his  high- 
way. The  Brazils  were  in  the  hands  of  Portugal.  If  we 
were  to  grow  it  was  clear  that  we  must  fight  for  room,  and 
at  the  outset  there  was  but  faint  prospect  of  much  success. 
But  the  impulse  was  there,  and  the  energy,  and  the  intelli- 
gence, sufficient,  as  the  event  proved,  to  give  us  the  supreme 
place  in  the  outward  movement. 

What  the  result  has  been  is  briefly  shown  in  a  conspectus 
of  the  British  Empire  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  The 
Empire  now  consists  of: — 

(i)  The  United  Kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  under  a  Crown  and  Parliament  with  a  single 
Executive  administration.  This  kingdom  is  the  head  and 
the  heart  of  the  whole  organism,  and  the  centre  of  a  commerce 
in  which  the  whole  civilized  world  has  concern. 

(ii)  Certain  great  Daughter  Colonies  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  term  '  colony '  ;  predominantly  blood  of  our  blood  and 
bone  of  our  bone,  with  our  language,  our  laws  (in  the  main), 
and  our  manners  ;  namely,  the  seven  colonies  in  Australia 
and  New  Zealand,  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  New- 
foundland. 

(iii)  Mixed  Colonies  :  where  English  people  are  pre- 
dominant in  influence  as  well  as  in  government,  but  where 
there  are  native  populations  exceeding  in  numbers  the 
English  residents  :  the  older  colonies  in  South  Africa  (Cape 


12  Introduction.  [Ch.  i. 

Colony  and  Natal),  Sierra  Leone,  the  Gold  Coast  and  Lagos, 
Mauritius,  the  British  West  Indies,  including  Guiana  and 
Honduras,  the  settlements  at  the  Straits  of  Malacca. 

(iv)  Dependencies  :  where  we  are  present  as  rulers,  the 
well-being  of  the  native  populations  being  now  recognised 
to  be  the  purpose  of  our  staying,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  original  motive  of  our  going :  namely,  the  Presi- 
dencies, Provinces,  and  Native  States  of  India  ;  Ceylon ; 
Burmah ;  Fiji.  Some  of  these  are  incompletely  under  our 
rule  under  the  designation  of  Protectorates,  as  Zanzibar, 
Niger  Territory,  Bechuanaland,  British  New  Guinea  ;  and  in 
some  places  we  have  agreed  with  other  European  nations 
that  they  will  not  interfere  with  our  predominance  if  we  wish 
to  assert  it :    these  are  called  '  Spheres  of  influence? 

(v)  Outposts  for  military,  naval,  and  commercial  pur- 
poses :  Gibraltar,  Malta,  St.  Helena,  Ascension,  Bermuda, 
the  Falkland  Isles,  the  Seychelles,  Socotra,  Chagos  and  Oil 
Islands,  Aden,  Singapore,  Labuan,  Hong  Kong,  Norfolk 
Island,  the  Kermadec  Islands,  the  Louisiades,  Rotumah, 
Tonga. 

Three  salient  features  in  the  colonizing  and  governing 
achievement  of  the  British  people  are  so  remarkable  and  so 
important  that  they  should  always  be  brought  into  the  field 
of  view  when  we  feel  in  danger  of  being  confused  through  the 
variety  and  the  multitudinousness  of  our  colonial  history : — 

(a)  They  have  colonized  and  started  in  full  course  the  targest 
pure  colony  ever  yet  seen — our  thirteen  colonies  in  North 
America,  now  the  United  States.  No  development  by 
growth  of  offshoot  has  been  exhibited  in  ancient  or  modern 
times  on  a  scale  so  extensive  before  ;  compared  with  this,  the 
Spanish  daughter-nations  in  South  America  are  puny  in 
strength,  besides  being  hybrid  in  race. 

(b)  They  stand  before  the  world  as  rulers  of  the  many 
nations  summed  up  under  the  term  '  India ' ;  a  government 
by  an  outside  people  carried  on  for  the  welfare  of  the 
governed  such  as  has  never  yet  been  attempted  on  anything 
approaching  the  same  scale. 

(c)  They  have  an  Empire  so  placed  that  they  are  brought 


Ch.  I.]  British  Empire.  13 

into  direct  and  effective  contact  with  all  the  great  nationalities 
in  the  world.  Their  islands  give  them  a  place  in  the  European 
home  ;  they  have  a  footing  on  all  the  ocean-coasts  of  Africa 
and  are  extending  inland  from  several  sides ;  they  are  neigh- 
bours to  China  and  Japan  ;  they  have  important  interests  in 
America  ;  and  are  without  serious  rivals  in  Australasia  and 
the  Southern  Oceans. 

Upon  this  basis  is  erected  a  Commerce  which  causes  nearly 
a  thousand  million  pounds'  worth  of  goods  to  pass  in  and 
out  every  year  :  the  corresponding  figures  for  France  being 
3 50  millions,  Germany  350,  the  United  States  300,  Russia  150. 
This  commerce  gives  employment  to  a  mercantile  Marine 
which  the  first  complete  Lloyd's  Register  (in  1886)  showed 
to  be  52  per  cent,  of  the  shipping  of  the  world,  63  per  cent, 
of  the  steam  tonnage  taken  separately  ;  and  it  gives  rise  to 
a  Banking  system  which  makes  London  the  centre  of  the 
business  of  the  world.  Upon  this  imperial  and.  commercial 
basis,  and  by  means  of  a  language  becoming  more  and  more 
necessary  as  an  equipment  of  educated  people,  there  flourishes 
a  system  of  book  and  journal  circulation  by  which  English 
ideas  are  rapidly  communicated  to  the  educated  classes  of 
every  nation. 


CHAPTER  II. 
The  Pioneer  Period:  Portugal,  Spain,  England. 

The  Motives. 

In  the  formation  of  our  Empire  we  shall  see  in  action 
motive  powers  of  various  kinds  controlled  towards  one  end. 
For  the  early  stages  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  much 
analysis.  We  may  very  well  allow  that  with  nations  as  with 
men,  and  with  animal  life  generally,  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
spontaneous  activity,  especially  when  the  nation  is  young 
and  vigorous.  The  English  nation  had  energy  to  spare, 
and  was  soon  aware  that  new  opportunities  were  offered, 
especially  to  those  of  her  people  who  were  already  occupied 
with  commerce  and  were  familiar  with  the  sea.  In  her  ports 
and  all  along  the  sea-board  of  the  southern  counties  the 
movement  was  soon  intensely  felt.  Gentlemen  and  mer- 
chants banded  themselves  together  for  '  ventures '  and  found 
no  lack  of  mariners  to  man  their  little  ships.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  in  many  minds  the  aim  was  for  Gold:  but 
somehow  the  gold-yearning  of  an  early  period  hardly  carries 
with  it  the  sordid  associations  of  later  times.  When  a  man 
takes  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  sallies  forth  with  all  his  wits 
on  the  qui  vive,  and  all  his  courage  required,  even  the  pur- 
suit of  gold  has  some  nobility  about  it ;  and  when  his  life  is 
risked  not  only  in  stormy  wind  and  tempest,  but  also  in  con- 
flicts with  savages  in  unknown  lands,  and  in  still  greater 
jeopardies  from  jealous  and  angry  rivals,  we  feel  that  we 
must  allow  him  some  claim  upon  our  capacity  for  admiration. 
In  England,  too,  we  find  that  gold  had   far  less  share  in 


Portugal.  1 5 

the  attraction  than  it  had  in  Spain.  We  can  best  describe 
our  aim  as  Trade  :  the  acquisition  of  bounties  of  Nature  not 
bestowed  on  our  own  land,  in  exchange  for  products  of  our 
own  industrious  people. 

In  looking  at  the  great  expansion  of  trade  in  the  new  era 
we  must  note  that  to  some  extent  it  was  a  diversion  of 
enterprise,  and  not  wholly  a  creation  of  new  lines.  The 
commerce  of  Venice  and  Genoa  with  the  East  had  before 
this  given  birth  to  a  wealth  and  luxury  of  life  which 
for  many  years  was  not  more  than  replaced,  if  it  was 
ever  replaced,  by  the  prosperity  of  Lisbon  and  Seville  and 
Antwerp.  The  sea-voyage  to  the  East  made  traffic  easier  in 
certain  points,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  large  regions  of  Asia, — 
the  Bokharas,  Thibet,  and  China, — were  better  known  to 
Europe  before  the  New  World  was  discovered,  than  they 
have  been  until  this  century.  But  of  course  there  was  also 
a  great  expansion  over  a  new  field,  and  the  glory  of  Italian 
commerce  was  to  pale  before  the  rising  stars  of  the  more 
Western  States. 

Portugal  fir3t  in  the  field. 

The  honour  of  priority  in  the  move  seaward  belongs  to 
PORTUGAL.  In  Portugal  we  see  a  compact  nation,  owning  a 
long  coast-line  well  out  to  the  West,  and  trained  by  her  long 
wars  with  the  Moors.  She  found  herself  free  in  1385,  about 
one  hundred  years  earlier  than  her  neighbours  of  the  then 
separate  kingdoms  of  Aragon  and  Castile,  and  she  produced 
a  man  capable  of  stimulating  and  directing  the  new  movement, 
though  never  himself  an  active  participator  in  it.  Prince  Henry 
the  Navigator,  younger  son  of  the  Portuguese  king,  devoted 
himself  to  the  fostering  of  discovery.  He  took  up  his  abode 
on  the  sea-coast  of  Portugal  and  for  forty-three  years  directed 
a  School  of  Geography  and  Navigation;  never  marrying, 
but  taking  the  Advance  of  Knowledge  of  the  Earth  as  his 
bride,  in  the  mystic  spirit  of  mediaeval  chivalry.  Securing  the 
property  of  an  effete  order  of  knighthood,  Prince  Henry 
obtained  leave  to  reconstitute  it  as  the  '  Order  of  Christ,'  with 
himself  as  Grand  Master ;  and  by  this  means  expeditions 


1 6  The  Pioneer  Period.  [Ch.  ii. 

were  equipped  throughout  his  life  and  for  years  after  his 
death.  The  Navigator's  efforts  were  directed  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  coast  of  Africa.  It  is  of  interest  to  remember 
that  this  enterprise  was  only  in  a  sense  a  new  one.  The 
Renaissance  was  a  re-conquest  of  Knowledge  in  many  ways, 
and  one  of  the  last  fields  re-discovered  was  that  of  the 
Carthaginian  and  Greek  navigations.  If  we  may  trust 
Herodotus  (Book  iv.  §  42),  Africa  was  circumnavigated 
before  his  day,  by  close  clinging  to  the  coast.  The  voyage 
took  two  years,  and  the  explorers  went  ashore  to  raise 
crops. 

Rude  as  their  ships  was  Navigation  then, 
No  useful  compass  or  meridian  known  ; 

Coasting,  they  kept  the  land  within  their  ken, 

And  knew  no  North  but  when  the  pole-star  shone. 

Still,  we  must  not  depreciate  Portugal's  glory,  for  all  this 
was  as  if  it  were  forgotten.  Prince  Henry  found  that  what  lay 
beyond  Cape  Bojador  was  unknown :  modern  navigators 
had  sailed  only  700  miles  out  of  the  6000  between  the 
Strait  of  Gibraltar  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  They  had 
indeed  ventured  away  to  the  west  500  miles,  sufficiently  far  to 
secure  the  Madeira  Isles — which  still  remain  to  Portugal — and 
Prince  Henry  at  once  showed  the  quality  of  his  ideas  by  pro- 
viding that  the  islands  should  not  be  used  simply  for  their 
indigenous  produce,  but  improved  by  the  planting  of  sugar 
from  Sicily  and  grape-vines  from  Crete.  Gradually  his 
sailors  pursued  their  way  along  the  coast.  The  Senegal 
and  Gambia  rivers  were  discovered,  and  then  Prince  Henry 
died — 1460.  But  the  mark  of  success  was  on  his  work,  for  his 
own  death  could  not  stay  it.  The  Sierra  Leone  mountains 
were  sighted  and  named ;  the  great  bend  of  the  coast  east- 
ward was  followed  round  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  until  it  turned 
southward  again  ;  and  so  on  and  on,  until  at  last  in  1492 
one  of  the  successful  Diaz  family,  Bartholomew,  found  the 
coast  again  trending  eastward — he  had  rounded  the  Cape. 
After  placing  a  pillar  on  the  shore  of  what  is  now  Algoa  Bay 
he  returned.  Immediately  an  expedition  of  three  first-rate 
ships,  three-masters  of  400  tons  burden,  were  fitted  out  in  the 


Ch.  ii.]  Portugal.  17 

dockyards  of  Portugal,  and  Vasco  da  Gama,  their  commander, 
had  the  honour  of  showing  Europe  the  ocean-road  to  Asia. 
In  July  1497  his  expedition  left  the  Tagus,  in  May  1498  it 
landed  at  Calicut  on  the  Malabar  coast  of  India.  Here  a 
'factory'  was  formed,  and  after  Da  Gama's  return  a  large 
fleet  followed  him  up  and  planted  factories  all  along  the  coast. 
Forty  years  had  been  required  to  push  from  Cape  Bojador  to 
the  Gambia  river,  less  than  1000  miles ;  the  next  forty  saw 
Portuguese  factories  in  India.  Prince  Henry's  School  of 
Navigation  had  worked  out  the  mission  of  the  new  '  Order 
of  Christ.' 

Following  up  these  efforts,  Portugal's  merchants  were  soon 
busy  from  the  Tagus  to  the  Canton  River  in  China.  She 
attained  the  height  of  her  power  under  her  Governor-General, 
&  Albuquerque,  1508-15 15,  while  England  and  Scotland  were 
engaged  in  conflict  atFlodden,  and  Henry  VIII  was  occupied 
with  continental  intrigues.  But  Portugal  did  not  either 
colonize  or  rule,  except  in  the  Brazils.  Her  factories  were 
trading-stations  to  which  a  few  miles  of  adjacent  territory  Were 
annexed,  and  the  native  potentates  in  the  neighbourhood 
were  entirely  undisturbed.  In  Goa  and  Panjim  she  still  holds 
relics  of  her  Indian  possessions,  and  it  was  from  her  that 
we  acquired  Bombay,  as  part  of  the  dowry  of  Catharine  of 
Braganza.  Portugal  was  very  nearly  being  the  first  in 
Western  discovery  also.  Columbus  first  offered  his  ser- 
vices, and  all  his  ideas  about  the  western  roadway,  to  the 
nation  for  which  Prince  Henry  had  won  so  noble  a  name. 
The  fatal  mistake  was  committed— this  was  some  years 
after  the  Prince's  death — of  referring  Columbus  and  his  pro- 
posals to  a  Committee;  his  plans  were  misunderstood  and 
despised,  and  his  offer  refused.  But,  even  so,  the  Prince's 
work  was  still  bearing  fruit ;  his  school  largely  contributed  to 
the  triumph  of  Columbus,  and  later  on  Magellan  and  Portu- 
guese sailors  were  engaged  in  the  Spanish  expedition  which 
went  beyond  the  River  Plate,  and  they  were  eventually  the  first 
Europeans  who  entered  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  that  side. 
But  when  the  New  World  had  been  discovered,  by  a  curious 
blunder  Portugal  obtained  a  share.     She  was  to  be  left  free 

C 


1 8  The  Pioneer  Period.  [Car.  XL 

by  Spain  to  all  the  regions  east  of  a  certain  line  of  longitude, 
while  Spain  was  to  be  free  on  the  western  side.  But  by  an 
error  in  their  geography,  South  America  was  pushed  too  far 
east  on  the  map,  and  the  Brazils  were  marked  as  on  Por- 
tugal's side  of  the  line,  as  if,  in  fact,  in  line  with  Africa, 
the  breadth  of  the  South  Atlantic  not  being  known.  Ac- 
cordingly, Brazil  became  Portugal's  chief  colony,  and,  though 
now  not  in  any  way  politically  connected  with  her,  she  has 
left  her  mark  upon  it.  Portugal  figures  so  little  in  later 
colonial  history  that  we  may  dismiss  her  here  by  saying  that 
when  she  came  under  the  dominion  of  Spain,  15 So- 1640,  her 
factories  and  dependencies  in  the  east  fell  one  after  another 
into  the  hands  of  the  Dutch,  leaving  only  the  Azores  and  the 
Madeiras,  Goa  and  Macao,  and  long  lines  of  African  coast  in 
Mozambique  and  Angola,  where  the  hold  was  so  slight  that 
there  was  nothing  which  the  Dutch  took  the  trouble  to 
secure.  In  thinking  over  our  recently  evoked  controversy 
with  Portugal  in  East  Africa,  we  do  well  not  to  forget  that 
her  past  history  entitles  her  to  a  degree  of  regard  which 
her  own  present  position  would  not  justify.  And  we  may  still 
hope  that  the  tradition  of  her  ancient  glory  may  enable  her 
to  be  of  some  use  to  civilization  in  her  African  territories; 
if  not,  we  shall  have  to  leave  her  to  be  dealt  with  by  our 
South  African  colonies.  But  at  least  the  historian  of  coloni- 
zation will  always  have  a  warm  regard  for  the  gallant  little 
pioneer  nation— the  land  of  Prince  Henry,  of  Diaz,  of  Da 
Gama,  of  Magellan,  and  of  D'Albuquerque. 

Spain. 
An  ampler  and  more  varied  page  in  the  history  of 
European  colonization  is  filled  by  Spain.  There  is  some- 
thing attractive  to  the  imagination  in  the  record,  and  yet  a 
very  mixed  impression  is  caused  by  its  study.  Gorgeous 
with  show  of  wealth,  and  sometimes  splendid  with  heroism, 
it  is  also  stained  indelibly  with  cruelties,  and  gloomy  with 
almost  inexplicable  failures.  How  was  it  that  so  much  of 
the  best  of  the  New  World  fell  to  Spain  and  gave  hdr  a 
magnificent  appearance  in  the  world,  and  yet  whenever^he 


Ch.II.] 


Spam. 


19 


c  2 


20  The  Pioneer  Period.  [Ch.  n. 

was  opposed  by  Holland  or  England  she  had  the  worst  of  it  ? 
How  is  it  that  we  associate  with  the  name  of  '  Spaniard ' 
both  chivalry  and  blundering  in  their  extremes  ?  The 
people  who  carried  Mexico  with  a  coup  de  main,  who  in  naval 
conflict  shared  the  honours  of  the  critical  victory  of  Lepanto, 
were  of  the  same  nation  as  those  who  when  setting  about  the 
chastisement  of  England  seemed  only  to  pass  from  one  kind 
of  blundering  and  ineffectiveness  to  another.  The  same 
country  produced  in  Las  Casas  a  flower  of  missionaries,  and 
a  queen  of  singularly  high  and  tender  soul  in  Isabella  ;  and 
also  a  ruffian-leader  like  Pizarro,  and  the  godless  inhumanity 
which  harried  out  of  life  in  fifteen  years  fifteen-sixteenths  of 
the  natives  of  Hispaniola.  The  wrath  of  the  Devonshire 
gentry  was  kindled  by  narratives  of  the  ruthless  dealings 
of  the  '  Spanish  Papists '  out  on  the  main  ;  and  yet  the 
heart  of  generations  since  has  been  touched  to  the  quick  by 
that  incomparable  imaginative  picture  of  the  true  gentleman, 
Don  Quixote,  drawn  by  a  Spaniard  and  Spanish  in  every 
detail  of  colour  and  character.  To  reconcile  this  opposition 
is  not  now  our  task :  we  need  here  only  notice  three  ad- 
vantages on  the  side  of  Spain  in  these  early  days  : — 

(i)  Her  training  in  the  wars  with  the  Moor,  rendering  the 
bearing  of  arms  and  the  conduct  of  guerilla  warfare  a 
matter  of  common  education  with  the  Spanish  gentleman. 

(2)  Her  position  under  Charles  V  and  Philip  II  as  chief  of 
a  quasi-confederacy.  The  looms  of  Flanders  and  the  indus- 
trial organizations  of  her  Italian  dominions  and  allies  were 
ready  to  absorb  and  work  up  what  the  gentry  of  Castile  and 
the  mariners  of  Andalusia  and  Biscay  might  bring  home. 

(3)  Her  readiness  to  bring  the  valour  and  the  enterprise 
of  others  into  her  own  service.  Columbus  of  Genoa  and 
Magellan  of  Portugal  learned  their  business  apart  from  her, 
but  it  was  under  her  flag  and  with  her  resources  that  they 
sailed,  and  in  the  prestige  of  their  achievements  Spain 
claimed  the  Western  World. 

Securing  at  once  the  greater  islands  in  the  Caribbean  Gulf 
she  set  to  work  to  get  their  gold  and  silver.  But  this  was 
not  an  abundant  source  of  wealth  in  those  islands,  and  from 


Ch.ii.]  Spain.  21 

them  sallied  forth  in  farther  quest  bands  of  disappointed 
adventurers.  Cortez  led  one  to  Central  America  and  secured 
Mexico  ;  Pizarro  led  another  and  seized  Peru  ;  and  Balboa 
first  of  Europeans  crossed  the  isthmus  and  gazed  upon  the 
Pacific  waters.  These  expeditions  absorbed  her  strength,  and 
furnished  her  with  ample  spoil  of  conquest  and  an  adequate 
field  for  fresh  development.  The  mines  of  Mexico  and  Peru 
fed  her  with  the  precious  metals,  and  emigration  from  Spain 
proceeded  with  sufficient  continuity  to  give  a  colonizing 
character  to  her  new  provinces.  Intermingling  with  some 
freedom  with  the  natives,  a  considerable  mixture  of  popula- 
tion ensued,  and  a  civilization  which  is  semi-European  has 
characterized  the  colonies  of  Spanish  America.  There  are 
not  wanting  persons  who  think  that  true  colonization  should 
give  rise  to  new  nationalities  by  admixture  of  race,  not 
merely  to  transplantations  of  existing  races.  In  this  aspect 
it  is  maintained  that  the  United  States  is  somewhat  of 
an  intrusion,  a  make-shift  which  was  all  that  the  English 
people  had  the  genius  to  accomplish,  but  that  a  higher 
function  has  been  discharged  by  the  Spanish  people  in 
the  formation  of  the  hybrid  populations  of  Central  and 
South  America.  This  question  will  be  again  before  us  in 
the  chapter  on  Native  Races.  Of  the  Spanish  method  of 
Empire  we  need  only  say  that  it  was  an  unmitigated 
exploitation  of  the  new  lands  on  behalf  of  the  old  ;  despotic  in 
government,  it  was  also  monopolist  in  trade-policy.  Trade 
was  limited  to  a  single  Spanish  port,  first  Seville,  afterwards 
Cadiz  ;  and,  in  reality,  to  a  few  rich  houses  of  business  both 
there  and  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  to  two 
annual  fleets,  one  to  and  from  Carthagena,  the  other  to  and 
from  Vera  Cruz. 

The  history  of  the  decadence  of  Spain  in  Europe  does  not 
concern  us  except  to  note  that  it  was  naturally  followed  by  a 
weakening  of  her  hold  upon  her  American  colonies,  until  they 
one  by  one  broke  off ;  and  they  are  all  now  independent  Repub- 
lics, partly  in  touch  with  Europe,  partly  pursuing  a  somewhat 
turbulent  course  of  development  of  their  own  and  not  likely 
ever  to  be  prominent  in  general  history.  The  splendour  of  the 


22  The  Pioneer  Period.  rCH.n. 

entrance  of  Spain  upon  world-history  has,  therefore,  in  no  way 
been  maintained.  The  national  character  was  not  of  the 
fibre  out  of  which  the  world-dominating  nationalities  are 
made.  The  expulsion  of  Moors  and  Jews  undoubtedly 
inflicted  irreparable  loss  on  the  Peninsula,  a  loss  which  was 
disguised  at  the  time  by  the  abundant  supplies  of  silver 
from  Mexico  and  Peru.  But  if  character  of  the  right 
stamp  had  been  there,  the  gap  so  caused  would  have  been 
filled  up  by  movement  of  the  Spaniards  themselves  into  the 
places  occupied  by  the  aliens  expelled.  That  they  did  not  fill 
up  their  place  is  a  proof  that  they  were  unable  to  play  a  really 
great  part  on  the  world's  stage.  And  yet  this  could  not  have 
been  predicted.  It  might  have  been  thought  that  the  nation 
of  Loyola  and  Saint  Theresa  could  have  inspirited  and  or- 
ganized, that  Velasquez  and  Murillo  and  Cervantes  might  have 
had  worthy  successors  in  art  and  literature,  sufficient  to  keep 
Spain  and  her  daughter-colonies  permanently  in  the  front 
rank  of  the  nations.  But  it  was  not  so  in  fact,  and  Spain 
had  to  make  way  for  other  nations. 

England's  appearance  on  the  scene. 

For  the  roots  of  the  history  of  our  own  colonizing  activity  we 
must  dig  in  the  portly  volumes  of  Richard  HAKLUYT,preacher 
and  sometime  Student  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  who  in  1582 
began  to  publish,  under  the  title  of  The  principal  Voyages, 
Traffiques  and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation,  the  results 
of  years  of  labour  upon  the  records  of  British  enterprise 
beyond  the  seas.  Hakluyt  was  a  thorough  student,  but  he 
was  a  student  of  human  action,  not  of  thought  or  learning. 
His  taste  was  early  formed  ;  he  tells  us  of  a  worthy  uncle,  a 
lawyer  in  the  Temple,  who  showed  him  some  charts  which 
were  to  his  boyish  mind  '  a  high  and  rare  delight.'  With  his 
ears  always  drinking  in  tales  of  adventure,  and  his  thoughts 
turning  upon  the  wonders  of  the  new  geography,  we  may 
easily  conceive  his  disgust  at  having  to  hear  reproof  from 
foreigners  that  Englishmen  were  behindhand  in  this  glorious 
contest  for  knowledge  and  fame,  and  that  this  was  in  spite  of 
our  having  some  manifest  advantages  for  this  very  pursuit 


Ch.  ii.]  England.  23 

our  insular  position,  our  excellent  shipping,  and,  as  was 
handsomely  alleged,  our  valour.  Perplexed  though  the 
Oxford  student  may  have  been  by  the  peremptory  way  in 
which  this  charge  was  brought  and  passed  about,  he  dealt 
with  it  as  Charles  II  did  with  the  problem  of  the  floating  fish, 
by  questioning  the  fact.  He  then  set  to  work  methodically 
to  show  what  Englishmen  had  so  far  done  ;  and  rich  was  the 
harvest  of  his  toil.  He  was  able  to  fill  one  large  volume  with 
the  narratives  of  English  ventures  before  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  proceeded  to  occupy  other  volumes  with 
narratives  and  original  documents  bearing  upon  the  Eliza- 
bethan voyages  and  discoveries.  To  summarize  all  these 
would  be  merely  to  give  a  catalogue  :  some  noteworthy  facts 
must  suffice. 

Hakluyt  prints  at  length  the  patent  issued  by  Henry  VII 
to  two  Venetian  mariners,  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot,  for  dis- 
covery in  North  America.  Their  achievement  is  modestly  re- 
corded by  Sebastian  upon  a  map  in  a  note  which,  as  translated 
by  Hakluyt,  runs  :  '  In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1497  John  Cabot 
a  Venetian  and  his  sonne  Sebastian  (with  an  English  fleet 
set  out  from  Bristol)  discovered  that  land  which  no  man 
before  that  time  had  attempted,  on  the  twenty  fourth  of  June 
about  five  of  the  clocke  early  in  the  morning.'  This  was  the 
beginning  of  our  many  voyages  under  the  Cabots  ;  Gilbert, 
Frobisher,  and  many  another  continued  along  the  coast  and 
towards  the  North-West  passage  ;  while  Jacques  Cartier  and 
others  for  France  were  surveying  the  river  of  Canada,  and 
making  voyages  southward  of  our  coast  to  Florida.  In  the 
patent  to  the  Cabots  we  see  leave  given  to  raise  ships  and  crews 
to  navigate  under  '  the  banners,  standards,  and  ensigns '  of 
England,  and  to  have  a  monopoly  of  royal  protection  and  of 
trade  in  such  places  as  they  might  discover.  The  return  for 
this  was  to  be  one-fifth  of  the  net  proceeds  of  each  voyage  ; 
later,  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  patent  to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  for 
example,  it  was  one-fifth  of  gold  and  silver  only.  This  is 
inserted,  it  would  seem,  less  as  means  of  gain  on  the  part  of 
the  Crown  than  as  an  equitable  return  for  the  protection  and 
countenance   of  the  State.     In  the  East  India  Company's 


24  The  Pioneer  Period.  [Ch.ii. 

Charter  (1600)  the  balance  of  trade  was  the  object  in  view  : 
as  much  gold  and  silver  was  to  be  brought  back  on  each 
return  voyage  as  had  been  taken  out.  As  a  clue  to  the 
causes  of  our  success  we  note  with  pleasure  Elizabeth's 
special  commendation  of  the  company  who  returned  from  one 
of  Frobisher's  expeditions  for  '  their  so  good  order  of  govern- 
ment, so  good  agreement,  every  man  ready  in  his  calling,' 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  great  opening  for  looseness  of  dis- 
cipline, as  there  were  several  on  board  who  sailed  as  neither 
officers  nor  seamen,  but  as  gentlemen-adventurers.  The 
religious  cast  of  mind  of  the  time  is  indicated  in  the  watch- 
words given  for  Frobisher's  third  voyage  to  the  North-West 
passage— Watchword,  'Before  the  world,  was  God;'  Reply, 
1  After  God  came  Christ  his  Sonne?  Sailing  under  such 
words  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  order  was  taken  for 
Daily  Service  twice  in  the  ships,  that  '  swearing,  dice,  card- 
playing,  and  filthy  communications'  were  to  be  '  banished.' 
And  when  they  landed,  the  bonds  of  Church  and  State  were 
not  to  be  dissolved.  The  first  three  laws  of  Newfoundland 
under  Gilbert,  1583,  were  (1)  public  worship  to  be  according  to 
the  Church  of  England,  (2)  attempts  against  English  rights  to 
be  high  treason,  (3)  speaking  against  the  honour  of  the  Queen 
to  be  punished  with  loss  of  ears,  of  ship,  and  of  goods.  And 
Mr.  Hailes,  the  writer  of  the  account  of  Gilbert's  voyage  and 
the  sole  '  gentleman '  who  survived  it,  commends  as  among 
its  purposes  religion  as  the  chief,  other  motives  being  valuable 
as  giving  place  for  this.  We  find  an  early  instance  of  the 
1 valour''  of  our  forefathers  beyond  the  sea  in  the  statement 
of  our  position  at  the  Newfoundland  fisheries  in  1578  (before 
Gilbert  went  there).  We  had  only  50  sail  of  fishing- ships 
to  Spain's  100,  Portugal's  50,  France  and  Brittany's  150 
(small),  and  20  or  30  Biscay  whalers.  But  it  is  said  that 
'  the  Englishmen  are  commonly  lords  of  the  harbours  where 
they  fish.'  We  kept  off  rovers  from  other  fisher-vessels  in 
return  for  help  in  our  fishing,  if  we  required  it,  and  the 
payment  of  a  boat  or  two  of  salt ;  and  this  had  been  in 
vogue  for  some  time,  being  said  to  be  '  according  to  an  old 
custom  of  the  country.' 


Ch.  ii.]  England.  25 

In  relation  to  other  countries,  we  find  that  the  letters  patent 
to  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  read  in  the  same  international  sense 
as  do  our  late  treaties  of  partition  in  Africa.  They  explicitly 
suppose  that  the  expedition  aims  only  at  countries  '  not 
actually  possessed  by  any  Christian  prince  or  people ' ;  and 
it  is  provided  that  if  Sir  Humphrey  or  his  successors  should 
give  offence  to  any  foreign  princes,  or  their  subjects,  in 
league  and  amity  with  England,  and  should  decline  to  make 
amends  when  ordered  by  proclamation  of  the  Crown,  he  or 
they  should  be  put  out  of  allegiance  and  receive  no  further 
protection.  The  connexion  of  the  new  country  with  England 
was  to  be  maintained  therefore  by  its  being  under  protection 
in  return  for  allegiance.    Our  '  Empire '  was  beginning. 

An  internal  bond  was  retained ;  the  settlements  were  to 
be  colonies — the  patria  was  not  abandoned  but  carried  over 
the  seas.  All  natives  of  England  and  Ireland — this  patent 
is  made  out  before  the  union  of  the  Scottish  Crown 
with  the  English — whose  names  were  on  the  registers  of 
Courts  of  Record  at  home,  continued  in  allegiance  and 
privilege.  Civil  and  criminal  authority  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  Gilbert,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  for  ever  ;  and  it 
is  worth  noticing  that  the  reason  given  for  this  is  no 
other  than  the  one  which  Hobbes  was  presently  to  make 
so  much  of  as  the  reason  for  government,  namely,  the 
ensuring  of  peace  by  fixing  of  power  somewhere.  But  it  is 
enjoined  that  the  statutes  made  were  to  be  as  near  'as  con- 
veniently may  be '  to  the  laws  of  England,  and  '  not  against 
the  Christian  faith  or  religion  now  professed  in  the  Church 
of  England.'  A  wise  elasticity  :  within  bonds  like  this  an 
enduring  connexion  could  be  maintained.  The  spirit  of 
Bacon  and  the  method  of  Burleigh  and  Walsingham  are 
here  in  operation  :  sagacious,  practical,  trustful. 

We  note  also  that  other  purposes  besides  that  of  extending 
empire  or  gaining  means  of  livelihood  were  already  being 
taken  into  account  by  thoughtful  men.  Richard  Hakluyt 
the  uncle,  in  his  instructions  to  some  friends  going  out  with 
Frobisher  (H.,  vol.  iii.  p.  72),  mentions — besides  'private  en- 
richment and  increase  of  Navie ' — independence  of  Spain  for 


26  The  Pioneer  Period. 

our  supply  of  oils,  sacks,  resignes,  orenges,&c.,'and  of  France 
for  woad,  baysalt,  Gascoyne  wines,  and  of  '  P^astland  '  for  flax 
and  pitch.  But  he  also  catches  a  glimpse  of  other  needs 
when  he  speaks  of  the  cities  to  be  built  in  the  New  World  as 
a  refuge  from  civil  or  religious  troubles  at  home. 

This  storehouse  for  the  record  of  our  early  achievements  was 
worthily  extended  by  Samuel  Purchas,  B.D.,  of  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  who  in  1624  published  four  volumes 
entitled,  Hakluytus  Posthumus,  or  Purchas  His  Pilgrimes, 
wherein  he  exhibits  '  the  English  Mariner  making  the  Seas 
a  Ferry,  and  the  widest  Ocean  a  Strait,'  and  presents  to  us 
the  formation  of  '  Englands  out  of  England.' 

How  vigorously  and  with  what  promise  the  work  of 
colonization  was  begun  may  be  seen  by  noting  that  by  the 
death  of  Queen  Elizabeth  we  had 

established    ourselves    as   leaders   in   the    Newfoundland 
fisheries ; 

made  several  attempts  to  plant  colonies  on  the  coast  be- 
tween the  St.  Lawrence  and  Florida ; 

made  numerous  attempts  to  work  a  North- West  passage 
to  China  and  India  ; 

sent  two  expeditions  round  the  world  ; 

over  and  over  again  spoiled  the  great  monopolist  Spain  of 
some  of  her  Mexican  and  Peruvian  cargoes. 
And  we  note  also  some  of  the  characteristics  which  fitted  our 
forefathers  for  their  parts,  viz. 

their  reputation  for  skill  and  valour  at  sea ; 

their  disposition  for  order  and  discipline  ; 

their  preference  for  general  commerce  over  mere  acquisi- 
tion of  gold  and  silver  ; 

their  solicitude  for  religion  and  humanity,  at  least  on  the 
part  of  the  organizers  and  supporters  at  home. 

No  one  can  rise  from  a  few  hours'  reading  of  Hakluyt  and 
Purchas  without  an  impression  that  the  men  of  whom  he  is 
reading  were  laying  down  lines  of  national  enterprise  with  a 
spirit  and  an  intelligence  which  might  lack  something  of  the 
pomp  and  romance  of  the  Spaniard,  but  were  of  a  kind  and 
degree  that  made  permanence  and  progress  a  moral  certainty. 


CHAPTER  III. 

International  Struggle:  Spain,  Holland,  France. 

Spain. 

The  expansion  of  Europe  was  not  to  be  a  struggle  with 
Nature  alone,  nor  a  conflict  only  between  civilized  nations  and 
barbarians.  It  was  to  be  worked  out  in  fierce  rivalry  among 
the  colonizing  nations  themselves.  Aggrandisement  and 
monopoly  were  supreme  objects  at  that  time,  and  a  new 
cause  of  hostility  between  England  and  her  competitors  was 
to  mark  our  history.  With  Portugal  we  had  little  strife  ;  she 
herself  was  in  decay  before  we  entered  the  field  in  any 
force  :  but  with  Spain  we  had  to  grapple  for  our  place.  We 
entered  vigorously  upon  the  struggle,  and  pursued  it  un- 
falteringly until  our  end  was  gained.  Our  warfare  with  Spain 
was  very  much  after  her  own  manner  in  her  own  earlier  days, 
irregular  and  almost  private  ;  not  with  fleets  and  navies,  but 
with  small  squadrons  and  single  ships,  attacking,  harassing, 
plundering.  The  State  was  only  partially  concerned  :  approval 
was  not  always  sought,  but  acquiescence,  hearty  if  informal, 
was  relied  upon  and  not  wanting.  Elizabeth  ('  Mother  of 
English  Sea-greatnesse,'  as  Purchas  calls  her)  well  knew  how 
to  play  the  monarch  in  this.  The  salient  features  of  the  con- 
flict can  be  well  traced  in  a  perusal  of  the  life  of  our  greatest 
sea-captain  of  this  period,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  a  life  of 
constant  prowess  but  varied  fortunes.  The  principal  con- 
centration of  forces  took  place  in  1 588,  when  the  great  Armada 
was  despatched  to  crush  us.  All  Spain's  enemies,  political 
and  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  colonial,  witnessed  with  intense 
interest  and  unbounded  triumph  the  preparations,  the  attempt, 


28 


International  Struggle. 


[Ch.  III. 


Walker  &■  Bontallsc. 


Ch.  hi.]  Spain.  29 

the  colossal  failure,  the  ruined  prestige.  As  our  Queen 
attended  a  thanksgiving  service  at  St.  Paul's,  so  also  the 
Kings  of  Scotland  and  Denmark  (including  Norway)  and 
Sweden  and  Navarre,  and  the  citizens  of  Geneva  and  of 
several  German  Protestant  cities,  did  the  like  ;  England's 
lead  of  the  Protestant  nations  was  secured  at  home,  the 
colonial  monopoly  fatally  weakened  abroad.  For  a  space 
France — with  its  industrious  Protestants  not  yet  oppressed — 
was  with  us,  and  joined  us  in  attempts  to  settle  the  West 
India  islands  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  planting  royal  colonies 
of  each  nation  by  agreement  as  to  certain  islands.  But  though 
Spain's  supremacy  was  mortally  wounded,  the  hostility  to 
her  lingered  on,  and,  whenever  any  mind  was  strongly  affected 
with  dread  of  Papacy,  Spain  still  loomed  as  the  most  dreaded 
foe.  This  was  the  case  with  Cromwell.  He  did  not  discern 
that  the  power  of  France  was  growing  while  that  of  Spain 
was  in  decay,  but  still  held  Spain  and  the  Pope  to  be  the  chief 
obstacles  to  freedom  and  progress.  '  The  Lord  Himself  hath  a 
controversy  with  your  enemies,'  he  wrote  to  the  Vice- Admiral 
in  Jamaica,  'even  with  that  Roman  Babylon  of  which  the 
Spaniard  is  the  great  underpropper.  In  that  respect  we  fight 
the  Lord's  battles.'  Later  in  the  same  year,  'we  think  to 
strive  with  the  Spaniard  for  the  mastery  of  all  these  seas.' 
Although  he  sent  Blake  to  the  Mediterranean  against  the  Duke 
of  Florence  and  the  Bey  of  Tunis  and  secured  justice  from 
them,  he  exclaimed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  'Why,  truly, 
your  great  enemy  is  the  Spaniard.  He  is  your  natural  enemy.' 
He  found  Spain  refusing  both  liberty  of  religion  and  liberty  of 
trade  in  the  Indies;  he  found  English  Papists  looking  to 
Spain  rather  than  France :  and  his  bias  prevented  his 
seeing  that  the  effective  power  of  Spain  was  declining,  that 
however  bad  her  principles  might  be,  Spanish  chivalry  was 
gone,  'laughed  away'  or  otherwise.  After  Cromwell's  days 
all  Englishmen  regarded  her  as  dangerous  only  when  swelling 
the  resources  of  France. 

Holland. 
But    before     France    became    our    chief    rival,    another 
conflict  had  to  be  waged.     The  little  nation  of  Holland 


30  International  Struggle.  [Ch.  hi. 

made  an  effort  for  the  vacant  supremacy;  and  for  her  size  and 
resources  a  gallant  effort  it  must  be  considered.  The  provinces 
which  had  broken  away  from  Spain  and  are  usually  known 
as  Holland  had  become  the  successors  of  Portugal  in  the 
choicest  parts  of  her  Eastern  possessions.  Dutchmen  were 
established  at  the  Cape,  along  the  coasts  of  India,  in  Ceylon, 
in  the  Straits,  and  in  the  archipelago  between  the  Indian  and 
Chinese  seas.  They  had  worked  hard  for  a  North-East  pas- 
sage, sending  many  expeditions  round  by  Nova  Zembla  and 
Spitzbergen,  and  it  was  a  Dutch  captain  and  crew  who  first 
of  Europeans  had  to  know  what  it  was  to  be  icebound  and 
to  spend  a  winter  in  the  Arctic  regions  in  (1596,  on  the  east 
coast  of  Nova  Zembla),  the  first  of  Europeans  to  live  through 
the  three  months'  night,  and  to  penetrate  up  to  8o°  N.  The 
practical  result  was,  not  a  useful  North-East  passage,  but 
the  whale-fishery  of  Spitzbergen,  which  presently  employed  a 
hundred  Dutch  ships  and  proved  an  admirable  nursery  for 
Dutch  seamen.  It  was  when  they  were  foiled  in  this  direction 
that  they  insisted  on  going  round  by  the  Cape,  and  at  that 
very  time  Portugal  collapsed,  and  they  took  her  place.  They 
also  made  good  a  temporary  footing  in  America,  where  their 
New  Amsterdam  was  the  precursor  of  the  present  'Empire 
City '  of  the  West.  Of  the  first  six  voyages  round  the  world 
the  Dutch  had  the  honour  of  making  the  last  three.  It  was 
on  the  latest  of  these  that  they  were  the  first  to  round  Cape 
Horn,  and  some  twenty  years  after  that  a  Dutchman  (Tasman) 
discovered  New  Zealand  and  Tasmania.  And  to  other 
nations  they  contributed  no  slight  help  by  the  excellence  of 
their  globes,  sea-charts,  and  atlases. 

The  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  Dutch  extension  lay 
in  their  method.  They  owed  their  very  existence  to  their 
industry.  Bacon  in  his  Essay  on  Seditions  epigrammatically 
says  that  the  Dutch  had  the  best  mines  above  ground  in  the 
world,  that  is,  their  own  work  and  trade.  Their  strength  lay  in 
their  intelligence  and  readiness  to  labour  and  to  thrive,  not 
in  any  physical  advantages.  And  so  their  enterprises  were 
placed  upon  an  essentially  business  footing.  Some  of  their 
expeditions  were  fitted  out  at  public  expense,  but  most  of 


Ch.  hi.]  Holland.  31 

them  by  private  subscription.  The  Joint- stock  principle  was 
thoroughly  worked — advantageously,  in  calling  into  active 
operation  the  capital,  however  slight,  of  all  her  thrifty  citizens  ; 
perniciously,  in  making  the  principal  object  the  payment 
of  dividends,  heavy,  prompt,  and  continuous.  Far-sighted- 
ness was  wanting  because  the  shareholders  would  not 
wait ;  generosity,  greatmindedness  in  Aristotle's  sense,  was 
out  of  the  question.  In  education  we  should  hardly  expect  a 
proprietary  school  system  to  work  out  new  and  unpopular 
lines  of  progress ;  in  colonization  and  empire  immediate 
returns  of  profit  can  hardly  be  the  best  means  for  attaining 
permanent  success. 

But  for  a  time  Holland  flourished  exceedingly,  and  her 
wealth  greatly  moved  the  envy  of  English  merchants.  While 
Cromwell  was  denouncing  Spain,  the  London  Exchange  was 
occupied  by  men  whose  attention  was  directed  rather  to 
Holland.  It  was  her  immense  carrying  trade  which  was  her 
great  instrument,  for  she  of  course  could  not  '  consume  '  more 
than  a  fraction  of  the  produce  which  she  brought  to  Europe  : 
she  ' carried  '  merchandise  on  commission.  Of  the  25,000  ships 
which  conveyed  the  trade  of  Europe  (writes  Colbert  in 
1669)  between  15,000  and  16,000  belonged  to  Holland;  only 
between  500  and  600  to  France.  When  they  had  settled 
down  to  their  carrying  trade  they  very  shrewdly  contrived  to 
get  Great  Britain's  consent  (including  Cromwell's)  to  a 
change  of  Maritime  Law  in  their  favour.  Hitherto  the  old 
Considat  de  Mer  had  allowed  neutral  goods  in  enemies' 
ships  to  pass,  but  enemies'  goods  in  neutral  ships  were 
forfeited.  The  Dutch  had  this  reversed  ;  the  ships  were 
to  be  the  points  of  favour  and  to  protect  the  goods  they 
carried.  But  to  be  a  common  carrier  and  trafficker  was  a 
position  widely  open  to  attack,  and  from  what  is  known 
of  England's  vigour  at  that  time  it  is  at  once  manifest 
that  we  were  unlikely,  and  indeed  unable,  to  accept  the 
situation,  in  spite  of  the  religious  sympathies  which  kept 
Cromwell  from  perceiving  the  antagonism  between  Holland 
and  ourselves.  But  commercial  rivalry  was  bound  to  tell, 
when  men  thought  of  the  situation  in  such  words  as  Dryden's : 


32  International  Struggle.  [Ch.iii. 

Trade,  which  like  blood  should  circularly  flow, 
Stopped  in  their  channels,  found  its  freedom  lost : 

Thither  the  wealth  of  all  the  world  did  go, 

And  seemed  but  shipwracked  on  so  base  a  coast ; 

and  at  length  Cromwell  had  to  act,  the  hostility  being 
at  first  confined  to  legislative  enactments.  The  famous 
Navigation  Acts  of  165 1-5  struck  directly  at  the  heart  of 
Holland.  No  Dutch — to  save  appearances  it  was  expressed 
as  '  no  foreign ' — ships  were  to  carry  to  England  other  goods 
than  those  proceeding  from  Holland  itself.  This  was  fatal, 
of  course,  if  it  could  be  enforced,  and  to  enforce  it  we  had  to 
fight.  Here  again  the  '  valour '  and  seamanship  of  English- 
men were  not  lacking,  and  in  1652  the  naval  warfare  of 
Blake  against  De  Ruyter  and  Tromp  commenced.  It  did 
not  last  very  long.  The  sea-fights  of  Cromwell's  time  were 
succeeded  by  the  sea-fights  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  but  the 
wavering  success  of  the  actual  fighting  issued  in  a  definite 
success  for  England.  We  made  good  our  position  ;  the 
Navigation  Act  was  enforced,  and  Holland  was  obliged  to  be 
contented  with  a  substantial  share  instead  of  having  almost 
a  monopoly  of  the  traffic  of  the  East.  As  a  sign  that  our 
desire  was  for  room  for  ourselves,  not  for  interference,  we 
agreed  after  the  war  of  1667  to  allow  all  the  merchandise 
from  the  Rhine  districts,  far  away  beyond  Holland,  to  count  as 
1  Dutch,'  because  they  passed  through  her  hands  at  Rotterdam 
and  Amsterdam  and  we  were  in  no  way  concerned  with  them. 
When  France  entered  into  conflict  with  Holland  we  were 
already  on  terms  that  made  Holland  and  ourselves  natural 
allies,  only  that  the  disloyalty  of  Charles  II  to  his  trust  forced 
us  into  an  alliance  with  France  for  some  time  longer.  Holland 
was  very  nearly  ruined  ;  but  when  the  Stuarts  had  gone  and 
William  of  Orange  wielded  the  combined  strength  of  England 
and  Holland,  these  nations  were  united  by  both  religious 
sympathy  and  trade-interests  against  the  threatening  power 
of  Louis  XIV. 

•  France. 

In  our  antagonism  with  France  we  entered  upon  the 
last  great  stage  of  struggle  ;  fierce,  bitter,  and  prolonged. 


Ch.iii.]  France.  33 

The  seventeenth  century  had  brought  France  to  the  summit 
of  her  strength  and  placed  her  supreme  among  Euro- 
pean States.  If  we  must  make  considerable  deduction  from 
Voltaire's  panegyric  of  the  Age  of  Louis  XIV,  still  we  must 
frankly  allow  a  stage  of  general  development  which  marks  this 
as  one  of  the  great  periods  of  the  world's  civilization.  If  we 
ourselves  produced  in  Milton  a  mind  of  loftier  powers  than 
either  Corneille  or  Racine,  we  had  no  Moliere,  no  La  Fontaine 
or  Madame  de  Sevigne.  Boileau  in  criticism  led  an  ephemeral 
taste,  but  he  constructed  a  definite  and  delicate  instrument  of 
culture.  Bossuet  and  Fenelon  were  not  superior  to  our  theolo- 
gians and  preachers,  but  Hobbes  can  hardly  rank  with  Des- 
cartes in  philosophy  ;  and  whom  shall  we  place  in  a  line  with 
Pascal  ?  If  our  policy  was  more  profound  it  was  not  ad- 
ministered with  such  ability  as  was  shown  by  Richelieu  and 
Mazarin,  and  we  never  had  in  our  history  an  administrator 
of  the  comprehensiveness  and  inventiveness  of  the  great  Col- 
bert. Colbert's  name,  indeed,  would  have  to  be  painted  in 
large  letters  on  a  roll  of  those  who  have  stimulated  European 
colonization.  Perhaps  no  other  man  of  first  rank,  except 
Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  could  be  placed  as  high  as  he, 
for  no  other  so  definitely  made  colonization  a  fixed  element 
in  his  public  policy,  and  had  plans  and  systems  so  sagacious 
and  far-sighted.  He  discharged  at  the  same  time  five  of 
the  great  offices  of  State — the  Household,  Finance,  Agri- 
culture and  Commerce,  Public  Works,  and  the  Marine,  yet 
he  was  not  overwhelmed  and  therefore  confined  to  a  hand- 
to-mouth  policy.  In  finance  he  changed  in  twenty-two 
years  a  revenue  gross  84  million  francs,  net  32,  to  gross 
112  (in  spite  of  reductions),  net  94.  He  established  five 
great  commercial  companies  and  induced  princes  of  the 
blood  to  take  shares.  He  added  to  the  French  West  Indian 
Islands,  occupied  Hayti,  sent  out  colonists  to  Cayenne 
and  Canada,  occupied  Louisiana,  Goree,  the  east  coast  of 
Madagascar,  and  established  factories  at  Surat,  Chander- 
nagore,  and  Pondicherry.  He  raised  the  register  of  sailors 
from  36,000  to  77,000,  and  the  Navy  from  30  to  176  ships. 
With  all  remembrance  of  what  England  owes  to  Raleigh  and 

D 


34  International  Struggle.  [Ch.  hi. 

Cromwell  and  Chatham,  it  must  be  allowed  that  no  single 
statesmen  occupies  in  our  history  a  place  like  Colbert's.  In 
all  interests  of  the  human  mind  France  was  then  laying  the 
foundations  and  rearing  the  structure  of  the  moral  domina^ 
tion  which  was  to  last  so  long  over  the  continent.  Her 
literature  and  art  and  science  and  learning  were  known  among 
other  nations  while  England's  had  no  vogue  beyond  our  shores. 
In  colonization  France  had,  by  1690,  taken  up  a  strong 
position  and  one  of  considerable  promise.  In  the  outer  world 
she  had  positions  alongside  our  own.  In  North  America  she 
was  developing  Canada,  Acadia,  and  Cape  Breton  Island, 
and  had  her  place  on  the  fishing  banks  of  Newfoundland  ; 
further  south  she  held  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi ;  in  the 
West  Indies  she  had  Martinique  and  Guadeloupe ;  in 
Africa,  Senegal ;  and  in  India  she  had  Pondicherry  and 
Chandernagore.  Her  navy  and  her  mercantile  marine  were 
of  great  volume,  and,  for  a  time,  competently  directed  and 
manned. 

Our  Second  Hundred  Years'  "War. 

The  contest  went  on  from  the  time  when  William  of 
Orange  took  his  seat  on  our  throne  until  Wellington  finally, 
sheathed  his  sword  at  Waterloo.  In  this  period  of  127  years 
England  and  France,  as. Professor  Seeley  points  out,  were  at 
war  for  sixty-four  years.  Not  that  it  was  always  and  solely  as 
rivals  in  the  attainment  of  dominion  beyond  Europe.  Besides 
the  fact  that  minor  and  comparatively  trivial  difficulties, 
dynastic  and  other,  had  some  influence,  there  were  two  other 
great  causes  of  hostility — the  endeavour  of  France  to  upset 
the  balance-of-power  solution  of  European  relations,  and  the 
breaking  out  of  the  anarchical  element  in  the  French 
Revolution.  But  throughout  this  period  there  was  always 
in  the  rivalry  for  colonies  and  empire  a  constant  ground  of 
thorough  hostility  and  real  national  animosity. 

But,  before  bringing  forward  some  evidence  of  this,  we  note 
that,  in  1661,  when  England's  population  was  some  seven- 
and-a-half  millions,  France  was  a  solid  nation  of  probably 


Ch.  hi.]  France.  35 

twenty  millions.    A  French  historian,  M.  Victor  Duruy,  thus 
sums  up  the  situation  at  that  time  : — 

*  Louis  XIV  had  able  ministers  and  the  most  united  and 
best  situated  kingdom  in  Europe.  After  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Fronde  resistance  his  own  authority  encountered  no  obstacle 
whatever.  His  finances  were  being  put  in  order  by  Colbert, 
his  army  organized  by  Louvois  under  skilful  generals.  His 
strength  was  great  and  was  augmented  relatively  by  the  feeble- 
ness of  his  neighbours.'  M.  Duruy  then  speaks  of  'the 
decadence  of  Spain,  the  chaos  of  Germany,  the  inability  of 
Austria  to  do  more  than  hold  her  own  against  the  Turks,  the 
effacement  of  Italy,  the  weariness  of  Sweden  after  her  efforts 
under  Gustavus,  the  slender  territorial  basis  of  Holland.'  He 
points  out  that  England  was  terribly  hampered  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  by  the  opposition  of  the  Stuarts  to  the  national 
sentiment  in  reference  to  foreign  affairs ;  a  condition  which 
disappeared  when  William  ascended  the  throne. 

But,  just  as  the  contest  began,  signs  of  decay  in  the  condi- 
tion of  France  could  have  been  discerned.  First,  the  spirit  of 
intolerance  gained  ascendancy  in  the  national  policy ;  the  Pro- 
testants' privileges  were  withdrawn  in  1685  ;  and  numbers  of 
the  most  industrious  and  steady  of  her  citizens  left  for  England, 
where  there  were  thirty-one  congregations  formed  in  London 
alone,  and  for  Holland,  Germany,  and  America.  The  aged 
Chancellor  of  the  kingdom  ejaculated  his  Nunc  dimittis  of 
supreme  thankfulness  for  the  purgation  of  the  Church,  but  did 
not  see  that  he  was  participating  in  the  infliction  of  one  of 
the  greatest  misfortunes  of  France.  In  spite  of  the  police, 
at  least  250,000  crossed  the  frontier,  carrying  with  them  the 
secrets  of  their  manufactures  and  a  sense  of  hostility  to  a  land 
they  now  identified  with  despotism  and  bigotry.  And  it  may 
be  noted  that,  as  the  French  control  of  colonies  was  closer 
than  ours,  this  intolerance  was  extended  to  them  also  :  Loui- 
siana could  not  play  the  part  of  New  England,  for  the  interdicts 
were  extended  to  the  colonies.  '  The  King  has  not  expelled 
Protestants  from  his  kingdom  in  order  to  set  up  a  republic  of 
them  in  America,'  said  a  French  statesman. 

Secondly.    The  personal  character  of  government  was  not 

D  2 


36  International  Struggle.  [Ch.iii. 

adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  situation  :  great  ministers  and 
generals  are  not  always  found  in  continuous  succession,  much 
less  are  upright  and  devoted  officials  of  all  ranks  to  be  always 
secured.  A  despotic  government  may  be  well  adapted  for 
the  organization  of  an  invasion,  or  for  resistance  to  a  sudden 
attack,  but  in  a  prolonged  contest  its  weakness  is  proved. 
Corruption,  embezzlement,  private  interests  and  ambitions, 
these  and  similar  malignant  influences  ruined  the  govern- 
ment of  France.  And  at  the  very  outset  a  terrible 
disaster  befel  them  just  where,  for  the  conflict  with  us, 
they  had  most  need  of  strength— in  their  navy.  The 
story  of  the  battle  of  La  Hogue,  1692,  and  its  consequences, 
is  well  told  by  Macaulay,  and  Michelet  entirely  agrees,  stating 
that  for  a  generation  afterwards  the  French  admirals  had 
orders  to  avoid  meeting  our  fleets,  and  that  in  consequence 
the  English  seamen  were  possessed  with  the  idea  of  their  own 
prowess,  while  all  Europe  was  obliged  to  recognise  that  the 
imbecility  of  England  in  recent  years  had  ceased  with  the 
departure  of  the  Stuarts.  When  the  ruler  who  inaugurated 
our  resistance  to  French  ambition  had  passed  away  it  is 
possible  that  we  might  again  have  acquiesced  in  the  superi- 
ority of  France,  but  that  she  went  too  far  when  Louis  XIV 
accepted  the  crown  of  Spain  for  his  grandson,  and  thus  brought 
on  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  It  was  indeed  a  dilemma 
for  England  :  whichever  alliance  had  been  thus  cemented — 
Spain  with  France,  or  Spain  with  Austria — we  should  have 
been  its  enemy  sooner  or  later,  because,  as  Michelet  says,  'we 
were  looking  at  the  Spanish  Indies,  the  trade  and  the  contra- 
band of  America  and  Asia.'  Only,  he  adds,  as  it  was  France 
that  took  up  this  disputed  crown,  the  English  general  desire 
for  increase  of  commerce  was  supplemented  by  the  English 
hostility  against  the  particular  nation.  The  council  at  which 
Louis  XIV  sat  before  he  made  up  his  mind  is  a  scene  of 
intense  interest,  and  we  see  the  terrible  responsibility  of 
despotism  in  the  fact  that  his  personal  decision  led  to  one 
of  the  most  terrible  wars  of  modern  times,  1704-17 13. 
Still,  it  was  no  idle  butchery,  nor  an  unaccountable  madness 
of  anger  or  ambition.     Everything  cannot  be  made  plain 


Ch.iii.]  France.  37 

by  old  soldiers  to  little  Peterkins.  The  Sea  is  a  British 
common,  says  Sir  Andrew,  of  the  Spectator  Club ;  and 
Englishmen  felt  that  they  could  not  allow  Spain  and  her 
monopolies  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  mightiest  kingdom 
of  the  time,  to  our  exclusion  for  indefinite  years  to  come. 
The  Marlborough  series  of  victories  confirmed  our  faith  in 
the  future  of  our  nation ;  the  first  stage  of  the  last  great 
struggle  was  decided  in  our  favour. 

A  glance  over  the  Treaties  of  Utrecht  (1713)  shows  the  place 
which  colonial  interests  occupied  with  us.  Whilst  allowing  the 
family  union  of  the  French  and  Spanish  crowns  (our  own  candi- 
date having  become  Emperor)  we  provided  that  no  advantages 
to  French  commerce  and  navigation  should  be  given  by  the 
King  of  Spain  ;  and  by  means  of  the '  vaisseau  de  permission,' 
a  ship  of  five  hundred  tons  which  we  might  send  once  a  year 
to  the  Spanish  colonies,  we  were  able  to  work  a  gigantic  con- 
traband and  smuggling  trade. 

After  Robert  Walpole's  long  efforts  for  peace,  England  was 
gradually  driven  into  a  new  war  (1743)  because  Spain  refused 
frankly  to  permit  trade  to  be  open.  The  war  was  with  Spain 
first ;  but,  apparently  on  account  of  a  new  question,  the 
Austrian  Succession,  France  soon  joined  her,  and  the  cam- 
paigns signalized  by  Dettingen  and  Fontenoy  were  fought. 
As  instances  of  the  real  importance  of  our  colonial  interests 
at  this  time,  it  is  remarkable  that  while  the  experienced 
Walpole  was  for  maintaining  peace,  the  commercial  classes 
felt  that  he  was  wrong  and  that  hostilities  must  be  prepared 
for,  if  not  precipitated  ;  and  it  was  afterwards  discovered 
that  their  instinct  had  led  them  right,  for  a  secret  family 
treaty  between  France  and  Spain  had  been  arranged, 
entirely  to  our  detriment.  This  brief  war  ended  in  a 
'peace'  (Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748),  which  was  merely  a  truce,  a 
suspension  of  hostilities  in  the  field ;  '  made  in  a  hurry  and 
without  wisdom,  it  was  badly  made,'  says  Michelet ;  it  may 
be  taken  as  a  warning  against  attempts  to  have '  peace  at  any 
price.'  The  weakness  of  the  situation  was  shown  beyond  the 
seas  :  in  America  and  India  our  plans  and  those  of  France 
were  irreconcilable,  and  campaigns  were  going  on  even  before 


38  International  Struggle.  [Ch.  hi. 

the  peace  was  publicly  broken.  In  America  the  French  were 
making  an  attempt  to  connect  their  two  colonies,  Canada  and 
Louisiana,  by  a  line  of  forts,  occupying  the  territory  behind 
our  backs,  and  thus  shutting  us  up  to  the  country  between 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Alleghany  mountains.  The  Ohio  valley 
was  the  scene  of  conflict,  and  the  colonists  of  Virginia  were 
supported  by  British  soldiers  in  resisting  the  French  and 
their  Indian  allies.  It  was  here  that  Washington,  in  command 
of  colonial  forces,  first  saw  active  service.  At  this  time,  too, 
we  carried  out, — under  the  plea  that  it  was  necessary  to  re- 
move people  of  French  nationality,  and  therefore  of  doubtful 
loyalty,  from  our  own  territory  near  the  St.  Lawrence, — 
the  banishment  of  the  Acadians,  brought  home  to  us  in 
its  sadness  in  Longfellow's  Evangeline.  At  the  same  time 
the  two  nations  were  joining  issue  on  the  question  whether 
France  or  England  should  represent  Europe  in  India.  Four 
considerable  men  appeared  on  the  scene  for  France,  La 
Bourdonnais,  Dupleix,  De  Bussy  and  Lally  ;  and  it  was  one  of 
these,  Dupleix,  who  first  put  into  active  operation  the  idea  of 
going  beyond  the  factory  system  of  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch 
and  establishing  '  a  colonial  empire  in  India,  built  upon  the 
power  of  the  native  peoples/  But  he  was  inefficiently 
supported  from  home  :  an  empire  could  not  be  established  by 
means  of  such  offscourings  as  his  Government  supplied  him 
with ;  he  had  to  give  way ;  and  Lally,  in  his  turn,  was  so  ill- 
supported  with  funds,  that  the  genius  of  Clive  and  the  energy 
of  the  East  bidia  Coinpany  soon  settled  the  question  on 
the  Carnatic  coast,  and  the  French  position  was  gone.  It 
is  sad  to  reflect  that  La  Bourdonnais  was  shut  up  in  the 
Bastille,  that  Dupleix  died  in  misery,  and  that  Lally  was 
executed. 

Chatham. 

At  length  the  Seven  Years'  War,  which  was  practically  to 
settle  the  controversy,  broke  out  in  full  flame  in  Europe. 
Our  alliance  on  the  continent  had  changed.  Gradually  the 
Austrians  had  begun  to  feel  that  France  was  their  true  friend, 
and  these  countries  formed  an  alliance  in  1756,  an  enmity  of 


Ch.iii.]  .  Chatham.  39 

two  hundred  years'  standing  being  effaced  by  the  appearance 
on  the  scene  of  a  fresh  centre  of  force  in  the  person  of 
Frederick  of  Prussia  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  unification 
of  Germany.  To  Frederick  we  turned  ;  and  early  in  1757  we 
stood  forth  with  him  as  joint  champions  of  'the  liberties 
of  Europe  and  of  the  Protestant  religion  in  Germany.'  We 
were  to  keep  an  army  in  Hanover  of  50,000,  and  a  fleet  in 
the  Baltic,  and  to  supply  him  with  substantial  subsidies, 
whilst  France  did  much  the  same  for  Maria  Theresa  ;  they  in 
their  turn  declaring  for '  the  liberty  and  tranquillity  of  Europe' 
too.  The  position  on  the  continent  was  not  hopeful  for  our 
cause.  In  front  of  Frederick  was  a  hostile  line  of  nations 
from  St.  Petersburg  to  Lisbon,  and  a  shower  of  disasters 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  struggle.  Braddock  lost  his 
life  and  his  little  army  in  the  Ohio  Valley ;  Minorca  was 
taken  by  the  French  Mediterranean  fleet  ;  Gibraltar  was  in 
danger ;  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  out-manceuvred  and 
obliged  to  disband  his  troops  in  Hanover  ;  and  Frederick  was 
driven  back  from  Bohemia.  l  We  are  no  longer  a  nation,' 
said  Lord  Chesterfield. 

But  in  England  there  came  to  the  front  one  who  drew 
from  Frederick  the  declaration  that  England  had  at  last 
brought  forth  a  Man.  William  Pitt,  or  Chatham,  as  we 
oftener  call  him  now,  confident  in  himself  and  trusted  by 
the  great  bulk  of  the  middle  classes  as  no  one  ever  was 
before  or  since,  took  the  helm  of  state,  and  in  conjunction 
with  the  Frederick  whom  Carlyle  '  defined  to  himself  as  the 
Last  of  the  Kings,'  soon  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs.  Ex- 
peditions were  sent  from  England  to  aid  Frederick,  subsidies 
were  poured  into  his  coffers,  and  he  made  a  fresh  invasion  of 
Germany,  and  won  over  the  French  the  critical  battle 
of  Rosbach,  besides  driving  the  Austrians  out  of  Silesia. 
Frederick  had,  indeed,  to  give  way  again  afterwards,  but  our 
victory  at  Minden  made  all  clear  once  more,  and  Frederick 
poured  his  troops  along  the  old  line  of  victory,  and  this  time 
with  permanent  effect.  About  the  same  time  Clive  was 
establishing  our  power  in  BENGAL,  Pitt's  chosen  general 
Wolfe  was   storming  Quebec,  and  our  Admirals,  Hawke 


40  International  Struggle.  [Ch.iii. 

at  Quiberon  and  Boscawen  off  Lagos,  were  shattering  both 
the  great  divisions  of  the  French  navy.  The  year  1759 
alone  saw  the  following  successes  :  in  June,  Guadeloupe 
taken;  in  September,  the  news  of  Minden  and  of  the 
driving  ashore  of  the  Toulon  fleet ;  in  October,  the  capture 
of  Quebec  \  in  November,  the  Brest  fleet  attacked  in  its 
shelter  among  rocks  and  shoals,  and  ruined.  A  contem- 
porary remarked  that  if  this  went  on  '  it  would  soon  be  as 
shameful  to  beat  a  Frenchman  as  a  woman.'  '  Our  bells,' 
writes  Horace  Walpole,  'are  worn  thread-bare' — we  must 
pardon  the  mixture  of  metaphors — '  with  ringing  for  victories. 
I  don't  know  a  word  of  news  less  than  the  conquest  of 
America.  Adieu.  Yours  ever. — P.S.  You  shall  hear  from 
me  again  if  we  take  Mexico  or  China  before  Christmas.' 

Again,  he  puts  his  finger  on  the  seat  of  disease  when 
he  writes  more  seriously,  ■  Sure  universal  monarchy  was 
never  so  put  to  shame  as  that  of  France.  What  a  figure  do 
they  make !  They  seem  to  have  no  ministers,  no  generals, 
no  soldiers.  If  anything  could  be  more  ridiculous  than  their 
behaviour  in  the  field  it  would  be  their  behaviour  in  the 
cabinet.'  As  France  could  not  pay  in  time  the  interest  on  her 
National  Debt,  a  line  was  inserted  in  an  English  newspaper 
among  the  list  of  Bankrupts — '  Louis  le  Petit,  of  the  City  of 
Paris,  peacebreaker,  dealer,  and  chapman.' 

Three  great  results  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  will  always 
give  it  a  distinguished  place  in  modern  history  : — 

The  firm  establishment  of  the  Prussian  Monarchy,  and  the 
beginning  of  a  new  German  State  ; 

The  decision  as  to  which  European  nation  should  make 
the  attempt  to  domi?iate  India  ; 

The  securing  of  North  America  for  the  British  people. 

This  signal  advance  on  our  part  must  always  be  associated 
by  Englishmen  with  the  great  name  of  Chatham.  An  almost 
reluctant  contemporary  opinion  is  worth  quoting.  Horace 
Walpole  (Letter,  June  3rd,  1778)  writes,  'I  do  not  know  yet 
what  is  settled  about  the  spot  of  Lord  Chatham's  interment. 
I  am  not  more  an  enthusiast  to  his  memory  than  you. 
I  know  his  faults  and  his  defects — yet  one  fact  cannot  only 


Ch.  in.]  Napoleon.  41 

not  be  controverted,  but  is  more  remarkable  every  day. 
I  mean,  that  under  him  we  attained  not  only  our  highest 
elevation,  but  the  most  solid  authority  in  Europe.  When 
the  names  of  Marlborough  and  Chatham  are  still  pronounced 
with  awe  in  France,  our  little  cavils  make  a  puny  sound. 
Nations  that  are  beaten  cannot  be  mistaken.' 

The  next  stage  of  the  century  of  war  shows  France  joining 
our  American  colonists,  thereby  supplying  them  with  a 
navy  and  making  our  permanent  victory  over  them  im- 
possible. Again  there  was  a  terrible  situation  before  us  : 
an  accumulation  of  dangers  such  as  recalls  the  direst  straits 
of  the  Roman  Republic.  In  1780  we  had  to  face  the 
following  perils  and  obstacles  :  powerful  French  and  Spanish 
fleets  were  besieging  Gibraltar ;  large  hostile  fleets  were  in 
the  West  Indies  (sixty  of  our  merchant  ships  were  carried 
into  Cadiz  in  one  sweep) ;  the  Armed  Neutrality  of  all  the 
Northern  nations  was  like  an  ice-wall  before  us;  Holland 
had  just  passed  from  neutrality  to  actual  war;  our  chief 
colonies  were  in  revolt,  and  we  had  lost  one  of  our  two 
armies  there  ;  the  ablest  of  Indian  native  rulers,  Hyder  AH, 
was  threatening  our  new  position  in  India  ;  Paul  Jones  and 
other  privateers  were  damaging  our  ships;  Ireland  was 
seething  with  discontent ;  and  in  Parliament  the  Ministry 
were  faced  by  an  Opposition  composed  of  abler  men  and 
better  speakers  than  themselves.  But  there  was  no  despair. 
The  spirit  of  Chatham  worked  on  after  his  retirement  and 
death.  Elliot  saved  Gibraltar ;  Hastings  preserved  India ; 
and  Rodney,  after  ruining  the  Spanish  fleet,  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies  and  gained  a  splendid  victory  over  the  French 
fleet  there  :  the  net  result  for  France  in  1782  being  that, 
though  somewhat  restored  in  prestige,  as  compared  with 
1763,  she  regained  not  a  single  foot  of  territory  from  us,  and 
was  again  proved  to  be  our  inferior  on  the  seas. 

Against  Napoleon. 

The  other  two  wars  were  waged  after  the  fall  of  the  old 
monarchy  in  France,  and,  so  far  as  our  empire  is  concerned, 


42  International  Struggle.  [Ch.  iil 

we  were  mainly  occupied  in  holding  what  we  had  already 
while  keeping  France  within  bounds  in  Europe  also.  These 
Napoleonic  wars  were  not  carried  on  by  us  so  evidently  for 
our  Colonial  Empire  as  the  others  had  been,  especially  in  the 
later  period  after  Nelson  had  succeeded  in  reducing  their 
navy  to  impotence.  Opposition  to  the  revolutionary  spirit 
counted  for  a  great  deal  in  the  first,  and  afterwards  oppo- 
sition to  the  designs  of  Napoleon  took  its  place.  But 
Napoleon  had  had  his  eye  on  the  East,  and  when  his  pro- 
digious successes  in  Italy  gave  him  the  peace  of  Campo 
Formio,  1797,  he  turned  to  deal  with  England.  Buonaparte 
himself  found  out  that  we  could  not  be  attacked  in  our  islands, 
and  so  he  proposed  to  gain  glory  in  Egypt,  and  strike  us  from 
there — '  la  frapper  au  cceur  en  y  detruisant  son  commerce  et 
son  empire.'  Madame  de  Stael,  for  instance,  acknowledges 
(Le  Direct oire)  that  Napoleon,  after  having,  under  the  in- 
structions of  the  Directory  to  prepare  an  attack  on  England, 
examined  our  coasts  and  discovered  our  impregnability,  tried 
the  conquest  of  Egypt  and  the  Mediterranean,  and  eventually 
of  our  establishments  in  India.  Nelson's  victory  at  the  Nile 
and  Sidney  Smith's  stubbornness  at  Acre  were  timely  and 
successful  obstructions  to  great  designs  against  us.  Napoleon 
aimed  a  more  direct  blow  at  us  by  his  Berlin  Decrees,  but 
we  never  paused  in  our  opposition  until  we  had  cleared  the 
French  from  Spain.  When  at  Vienna  in  1814  England  and 
her  allies  settled  the  boundaries  of  France,  we  left  her  on 
her  former  lines  of  territory,  but  relatively  a  weaker  nation,  as 
Prussia,  Russia,  and  Britain  had  all  aggrandized  themselves  ; 
meanwhile  the  English  were  confirmed  in  the  possession 
of  all  the  colonies  acquired  since  1783  that  they  thought  it 
essential  to  keep. 

Kesult. 

In  looking  back  upon  this  persistent  and  desperate  conflict 
for  empire  an  Englishman  naturally  feels  a  glow  of  patriotic 
pride  at  the  evidence  it  gives  of  the  strength  and  the  spirit 
of  his  nation,  not  more  manifest  when  Chatham  and  his  son 
in  turn  guided  and  inspirited  her  government  than  when,  in 


Ch.  hi.]  The  failure  of  France.  43 

the  interregnum  between  these  great  statesmen,  men  of 
mediocre  ability  had  to  hold  the  helm.  When  we  turn  to 
form  our  judgment  upon  the  failure  of  France  we  must 
frankly  acknowledge  the  justice  of  the  claim  of  her  histo- 
rians, that  she  was  placed  in  a  more  difficult  position  than 
we :  she  had  her  continental  foes  to  deal  with  as  well  as 
ourselves.  Cest  le  double  effort  qui  Pepuisa.  But  France, 
it  must  be  remembered,  was  a  mightier  nation  than  England 
at  the  outset ;  and,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  she  was  at  the 
height  of  her  moral  power  when  the  contest  began.  We  have 
to  conclude  that  she  suffered  from  internal  degeneration  ;  that 
she  became  enervated,  whilst  we  were  strong  and  healthy, 
with  a  liberty  sufficient  for  our  needs,  and  an  aim  not  at 
dominion  over  other  nations,  but  at  legitimate  development 
of  the  material  sources  of  national  prosperity. 

To  learn  that  the  acquisition  of  colonies  and  commerce 
was  the  cause  of  our  fierce  hostility  to  France  eases  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  been  taught  to  look  upon  these  wars 
as  ebullitions  of  passion  or  efforts  of  ambition.  The  war- 
like spirit  which  breathes  through  Bacon's  essay  on  The  true 
Greatness  of  Kingdoms  and  Estates  (xxix)  was  neither  ambi- 
tion nor  passion,  but  is  quite  consistent  with  the  declaration 
of  President  Garfield  in  our  own  day — '  Ideas  are  the  great 
warriors  of  the  world,  and  the  war  that  has  no  ideas  behind 
it  is  simply  brutality.'  The  ultimate  object  of  this  long  and 
severe  strife  was,  as  Professor  Seeley  points  out,  neither 
trivial  nor  brutal,  but  'a  prize  of  absolutely  incalculable 
value,' — free  room  for  national  development. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Development  and  Separation  of  America. 

The  birth  of  our  American  colonies  fell  so  far  within  the 
era  of  printing  that  their  history,  though  not  yet  of  three  cen- 
turies' stretch,  is  already  voluminous  and  detailed  almost  be- 
yond control.  The  hasty  generalizer  finds  abundant  material 
for  epigrams,  and  the  laborious  investigator  of  human  his- 
tory finds  masses  of  documents  capable  of  absorbing  his  toil 
for  years.  Their  importance  has  not  been  adequately  recog- 
nised :  but  even  Professor  Gardiner,  interested  as  he  is  above 
all  men  in  upholding  the  importance  of  the  home  history  of 
England  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  declares 
that  'Englishmen  of  future  times  will  turn  from  questions 
of  the  Palatinate  or  Parliamentary  privilege  of  James  Ps 
time  to  contemplate  the  fortunes  of  a  little  band  of  exiles.' 
An  interest  in  the  early  days  of  the  American  colonies  can 
perhaps  best  be  acquired  by  calling  in  the  aid  of  fiction  and 
poetry.  For  New  England  we  have  Miles  Standish  and 
The  Scarlet  Letter  and  The  Seven  Gables ;  with  Campbell's 
Gertrude  of  Wyoming  for  Pennsylvania  ;  Esmond  and  The 
Virginians  for  Virginia,  supplemented  with  the  gruesome 
romances  of  our  colonizing  life  on  its  roughest  side  in 
Defoe's  Colonel  Jack  and  Moll  Flanders ;  and  for  the 
romantic  side  of  our  contact  with  the  aboriginal  Red  Indians 
we  have  Fenimore  Cooper's  novels  and  Mayne  Reid's.  Then 
would  come  that  remarkable  book,  Smith's  History  of  Vir- 
ginia, New  England,  and  the  Summer  Isles,  where  fiction 
and  fact  are  unrecognisably  intermingled  by  a  writer  who 
was  himself  a  chief  actor  in  the  scenes  described  ;  the  story 


Development  and  Separation  of  America.  45 

of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers ;  and  a  life  of  William  Penn.  By 
means  such  as  these  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the 
American  nationality  can  be  introduced  with  the  advan- 
tages of  local  and  personal  colour  or  the  attractions  of 
literary  art. 

The  colonization  of  America  dates  back  to  the  surveys  of 
the  Atlantic  coast  by  the  Cabots ;  then  came  the  voyages  of 
Gilbert,  and  Frobisher,  and  Hudson  (only  partly  under  our 
flag),  followed  by  the  attempts  of  Gilbert  to  plant  a  colony 
at  the  fishing-stations  of  Newfoundland  and  the  repeated 
attempts  of  Raleigh  to  found  one  farther  south  in  the  vast  and 
undefined  region  marked  as  Virginia.  But  it  was  not  until 
Elizabeth  had  been  dead  three  years  that  the  Companies 
were  formed  which  were  to  achieve  permanent  results  in 
colonization.  These  were  the  London  and  the  Plymouth 
Contpanies ;  and  it  was  a  venture  of  the  former  which  de- 
spatched 143  emigrants,  who,  in  1607,  founded  the  first  per- 
manent centre  of  our  colonization,  under  the  name  of  fames 
Town,  on  Chesapeake  Bay.  This  little  settlement,  too, 
was  nearly  abandoned,  through  lack  of  the  means  of  live- 
lihood ;  but  on  a  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  Company 
at  home,— which  brought  in  among  others  Francis  Bacon, 
who  added  in  a  later  edition  of  Essays  the  one  on  Planta- 
tions, already  referred  to, — 500  more  settlers,  with  stores,  were 
sent  out.  But  these  unfortunately  represented  a  new  policy ; 
the  emigrants  were  mostly  rascals :  and  all  went  so  badly 
that  once  again  the  precipice  was  neared  :  in  fact  the  whole 
'  colony'  had  embarked  to  start  for  Newfoundland  when  a 
reinforcement  arrived  under  Lord  Delaware.  He  set  the 
people  to  tilling  the  ground  and  fortifying  themselves  against 
the  Indians,  and  from  his  landing  the  colony  was  really 
established :  although  the  early  struggles  of  the  settlement 
will  always  be  bound  up  with  the  name  of  that  hero  of 
Thackeray's  boyhood, '  Captain  John  Smith.' 

The  first  nail  is  often  enough  to  hold  a  plank  in  its  place 
for  a  time  :  by  the  James  Town  settlement  English  energy 
found  a  centre  on  the  American  continent,  and  development 
soon  followed.      Another  motive  for  emigration— foreseen 


46  Development  and  Separation  of  America.    [Ch.  iv. 

some  time  before  by  the  elder  Hakluyt  —  was  soon  in 
operation,  refuge  from  oppression.  The  party  of  English 
refugees  in  Holland,  revered  by  their  posterity  as  the 
'Pilgrim  Fathers,'  compelled  to  seek  some  other 
refuge  than  monasteries  or  mendicant  orders,  obtained 
a  royal  but  'private'  promise  that  the  Companies  should 
not  molest  them  and  sailed  for  America.  They  landed,  102 
'strong,'  in  1620,  at  a  point  already  named  Plymouth  by 
Smith.  The  climate  was  their  chief  difficulty ;  they  arrived  in 
November,  and  their  capacities  for  endurance  were  severely 
tried ;  at  one  time,  when  corn  was  gone,  shellfish  was  their  prin- 
cipal diet.  However,  things  cannot  have  been  so  very  bad, 
as  by  1627  the  little  community  was  able  to  undertake  to  buy 
up  the  shares  of  the  Company  which  had  fitted  them  out,  and 
in  six  years  more  had  paid  off  all  the  instalments  ;  but  it  was 
twenty-three  years  before  they  numbered  3000  people.  A 
colony  close  by  them  was  planted  by  a  new  Company  in 
1629,  which  became  the  colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  even- 
tually absorbed  the  original  Plymouth  settlement.  Massa- 
chusetts must  not,  however,  be  confounded  with  Plymouth 
and  the  Pilgrims.  The  former  numbered  in  its  ranks  some 
squires  and  merchants,  and  even  relatives  of  prominent  public 
men,  and  was  very  nearly  including  Cromwell ;  the  Pilgrims 
were  poorer,  and  unlettered;  and,  while  the  latter  were 
thorough-paced  Independents,  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
were  of  the  main  body  of  the  Puritan  party  and  had  the 
countenance  of  its  leaders  at  home.  From  Massachusetts 
the  colonies  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  afterwards 
formed.     Maine  was  separately  founded. 

The  growth  of  the  American  colonies  was  due  partly  to  a 
stream  of  immigrants,  partly  to  natural  multiplication  when 
Nature  had  been  grappled  with  and  brought  into  service. 
The  stream  of  migration  was  a  conflux  of  people  from  four 
sources  : — 

(1)  People  whose  main  desire  was  to  get  homes,  by  the 
assistance  of  the  Companies  in  England  ; 

(2)  People  who  found  political  or  ecclesiastical  lavys 
oppressive/ 


Ch.iv.]  The  Colonies  in  1765.  47 

(3)  People  whom  the  Government  desired  to  rid  the 
country  of,  for  their  misdemeanours j 

(4)  People  from  Africa  carried  over  as  slaves  and  regarded 
as  chattels. 

Of  those  in  category  (2)  it  is  sufficient  to  notice  that  the 
tolerant  application  of  the  laws  of  Maryland,  rather  than  the 
constitution  itself,  gave  the  Papists  one  place  of  refuge ;  that 
the  Quakers  went  to  New  Jersey,  but  afterwards  founded  a 
colony  of  their  own,  Pennsylvania,  on  '  liberal '  principles  ; 
while  Cavaliers  and  Churchmen  naturally  turned  to  Virginia, 
where  the  Church  of  England  was  established  "By  law ;  and 
the  Presbyterians  and  Independents  nocked  to  the  New 
England  settlements.  Repression  was  not,  however,  a  thing 
of  the  past.  Nonconformists  were  at  one  time  disallowed  in 
Virginia,  and  Churchmen  were  evicted  from  New  England 
colonies  ;  in  1704,  for  example,  there  was  no  congregation  of 
the  Church  of  England  east  of  New  York,  except  a  single 
privileged  one  at  Boston.  But  after  the  seventeenth  century 
greater  toleration  prevailed. 

The  Colonies  in  1765. 

The  colonies  had  become  thirteen  in  number  by  1765, 
when  the  movement  for  independence  was  begun.  The 
physical  qualities  of  the  territories  and  the  characters  and 
tempers  of  the  people  cause  them  to  fall  into  three  groups. 

I.  The  New  England  Group,  four:  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshire.  These  were 
Puritan  in  religion,  and  popular  in  government  and  in  social 
organization :  industrially  occupied  in  corn-growing,  timber- 
working,  fishing,  shipbuilding,  and  maritime  enterprise  ;  and 
in  fur  and  skin-trading  with  the  Indians.  This  group  was  the 
region  where  popular  rights  were  asserted,  and  became  the 
centre  of  literature  and  science  :  it  was  the  home  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  Daniel  Webster ;  of  Irving,  Hawthorne,  and 
Longfellow  ;  of  Channing  and  Emerson  ;  of  Motley  and  Ban- 
croft ;  of  Dr.  Holmes  and  Mr.  Lowell. 

II.  The  Southern  Group,  five  ;   Virginia,  Maryland, 


48 


Development  and  Separation  of  America.     [Ch.  iv 


&>$**&* 


THE 

XIII  COLONIES 
1664-1783. 


IValker&Boutallsc. 


Ch.  iv.]  Their  French  Neighbours.  49 

North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  all  cut  out  of  the 
original  '  Virginia,'  and  occupying  the  territory  between 
Chesapeake  Bay  and  Florida.  They  adhered  to  the  Church  of 
England  nominally  ;  they  were  aristocratic  in  government 
and  society,  a  class  of  planters  with  two  large  servile  classes 
('mean  whites'  and  negroes);  industrially  occupied  on  the 
Plantation  system,  with  tobacco  for  a  long  time  as  their 
staple  product.  This  group  furnished  such  leaders  of  the 
Independence  struggle  as  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Patrick 
Henry. 

III.  The  Middle  Group,  four  :  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware.  Of  these  four,  New  York  was 
taken  over  from  the  Dutch,  and  Delaware  from  the  Swedes. 
They  were  not  marked  in  religion,  or  in  social  organiza- 
tion ;  but  were  cosmopolitan  in  character.  To  this  group, 
for  example,  came  3000  German  Protestants  from  the  Pa- 
latinate, French  Huguenots,  Dutch  Calvinists,  Swedes,  and 
Welsh.  Occupied  in  agriculture  and  mining,  they  were  more 
like  New  Englanders  than  like  Virginians.  There  was  a  strong 
taint  of  selfishness  about  the  group  :  it  supplied  few  leaders 
for  the  time  of  strife  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  more  than  once 
nearly  drove  Washington  to  despair,  and  nearly  wrecked  the 
Rebellion.  Their  character  is  largely  redeemed,  however,  by 
their  greatest  man,  Benjamin  Franklin,  a  native  of  Boston 
but  a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  and  what  he,  with  Alexander 
Hamilton,  born  in  the  West  Indies  but  a  citizen  of  New 
York,  did  for  the  formation  of  the  new  Union  of  States. 


Their  French  Neighbours. 

As  time  went  on  it  became  important  to  consider  the 
position  of  our  colonies  relatively  to  others.  Both  north  and 
south  of  us  France  had  persistently  continued  to  colonize. 
Quebec  city  was  founded  only  two  years  after  our  James 
Town,  and,  under  Colbert,  definite  attempts  to  develop  French 
colonies  were  on  foot.  Later  on,  it  was  after  the  truce  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle,  1748,  that  French  colonies  were  at  the  height  of 

E 


50  Development  and  Separation  of  America.     [Ch.  iv. 

their  prosperity.  Not  only  were  the  islands  of  Bourbon, 
Mauritius,  and  their  West  Indies  the  chief  contributors  of 
sugar  and  coffee  to  Europe,  but  Louisiana  also  was  in  a  con- 
dition which  might  be  called  flourishing.  Yet  the  French 
colonies  in  America  were  very  far  from  being  so  flourish- 
ing as  ours.  In  1740,  when  our  colonies  could  have  hardly 
numbered  less  than  a  million  people,  the  French  in  both 
Canada  and  Louisiana  had  not  fifty  thousand  Europeans. 
Their  advantage  lay  (1)  in  their  magnificent  position  ;  (2)  in 
their  being  united  under  one  government  and  thus  ready  to 
act  together,  and  (3)  in  the  very  friendly  relations  which  the 
French  succeeded  in  establishing  between  themselves  and 
the  Indians.  On  this  last  head  we  read  their  record  with 
some  jealousy.  '  No  other  Europeans,'  says  Merivale, '  have 
ever  displayed  equal  talents  for  conciliating  savages  ;  or,  it 
must  be  added,  for  approximating  to  their  usages  and  modes 
of  life.  The  French  traders  and  hunters  intermarried  and 
mixed  with  the  Indians  at  the  back  of  our  settlements,  and 
extended  their  scattered  posts  along  the  whole  course  of  the 
two  vast  rivers  of  that  continent.  Even  at  this  day  (1841), 
far  away  on  the  upper  waters  of  these  mighty  streams,  and 
beyond  the  utmost  limits  reached  by  the  backwoodsman, 
the  traveller  discovers  villages  in  which  the  aspect  and  the 
social  usages  of  the  people,  their  festivities  and  their  solemni- 
ties, in  which  the  white  and  the  red  man  mingle  on  equal 
terms,  strangely  contrast  with  the  habits  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans,  and  announce  to  him  on  his  first  approach  their 
Gallic  origin.'  But  in  spite  of  these  advantages,  the 
secret  of  success  was  not  in  French  keeping.  They  were  not 
supported  by  that  volume  of  emigration  from  home  which 
was  feeding  the  English  settlements.  And  in  Europe,  as  we 
have  seen,  England  was  improving  her  relative  position. 
Acadia  was  given  up  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  when 
the  boundary  question  both  there  and  in  the  Ohio  valley 
came  to  the  front,  the  Seven  Years'  War  was  precipitated, 
and  France  lost  all  but  Louisiana,  which  she  transferred  to 
Spain,  as  in  isolation  it  had  become  practically  useless  to 
herself. 


Ch.  iv.]  Government.  5 1 

France  retained  in  North  America  only  the  little  islands  of 
Miquelon  and  St.  Pierre  near  the  Newfoundland  shore,  in 
connexion  with  their  right  to  share  in  the  great  cod-fisheries 
which  was  reserved  in  the  treaties.  Spain  never  made  much 
of  Florida.  The  Dutch  settlement  in  New  Amsterdam 
seemed  at  one  time,  under  Governor  Stuyvesant,  likely  to  do 
better,  but  the  population  was  not  homogeneous  :  Walloons 
and  Huguenots  were  so  numerous  that  some  public  documents 
were  issued  in  French  as  well  as  in  Dutch ;  in  fact  it  is  said 
that  eighteen  different  languages  were  spoken  within  the 
little  colony.  It  was  absorbed  in  1674,  and  Irving's  Knicker- 
bocker's History  of  New  York  remains  as  a  reminder  of  the 
early  days  of  the  great  commercial  centre  of  the  West. 
Before  the  colony  was  absorbed,  however,  it  had  itself  had 
time  to  swallow  up  the  little  Swedish  settlements  on  the 
Delaware,  so  that  after  1674  the  future  lay  only  between 
the  French  and  the  British. 

Government. 

The  government  of  these  colonies  was  in  essential  features  a 
reproduction  of  English  institutions.     Representation  was  a 
ground  principle,  and  it  was  distinctly  associated  with  taxa- 
tion ;  and  as  there  was  considerable  personal  authority  attached 
to  the  governorships,  our  combination  of  King  and  Parliament 
was  reflected  there.     The  common  law  of  England  was  sup- 
posed to  be  in  operation  unless  specific  alteration  had  been 
made.     The  main  organs  of  government  were  a  Governor, 
a  Council,  and  a  Representative  Assembly.     The  Governor 
was  nominated  in  some  cases  by  the  Crown,  in  others  by  the 
company  or  the  personage  at  home  who  was  proprietor  of 
the  patent  or  charter.     In  Virginia  a  House  of  Assembly 
was  formed  very  early,  1619 ;  it  was  composed  of  eleven  re- 
presentatives of  the  eleven  'parishes'  then  existing.     The 
public  history  of  the  colonies  until  1700  is  full  of  struggles, 
sometimes  degenerating  into  rancorous  quarrels  between  the 
different  members  of  government,  and  between  these  and  the 
proprietors  or  the  Crown  at  home.     It  is  wearisome  reading 

E  2 


52  Development  and  Separation  of  America.     [Ch.  iv. 

except  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  actual  insight  into  the 
working  out  of  political  problems  on  a  small  scale.  The 
Trade  was  regulated  so  as  to  secure  the  export  of  American 
produce  to  the  British  market,  and  to  keep  up  a  character  as 
markets  for  British  produce.  This  will  be  further  explained 
in  Chapter  vii :  it  must  suffice  here  to  remark  that  the  broad 
effect  of  this  did  not  give  any  serious  ground  for  complaint, 
as  the  course  of  trade  thus  artificially  regulated  was  very 
much  what  it  would  have  been  in  a  natural  way.  England 
could  supply  America  at  least  as  well  as  any  other  country 
could,  and  was  the  best  market  for  American  produce. 

Separation. 

But  the  time  of  separation  was  drawing  near.  There  is 
undoubtedly  a  general  d  priori  ground  for  thinking  that 
'  Colony '  is  a  temporary  and  unstable  '  status.'  A  colony  is 
in  need  of  nursing  and  fostering,  but  when  grown  up  the 
question  of  separation  or  reorganization  has  to  be  faced. 
Carthage  separated  from  Tyre,  Syracuse  from  Athens ; 
and  the  question  was  to  arise  how  these  thirteen  colonies 
would  finally  stand  related  to  their  mother- country. 


The  Immediate  Cause  of  Quarrel. 

Their  separation  from  England  is  one  of  the  best-known 
chapters  of  history.  On  both  sides  speakers  and  writers 
well  able  to  express  themselves  were  found,  and  every  detail 
of  the  struggle  with  tongue  and  pen  and  rifle  is  before  us.  The 
immediate  cause  is  of  course  quite  clear ;  an  attempt  was 
made  to  raise  Revenue  from  these  colonies  without  applica- 
tion for  their  assent.  This  was  touching  English  communi- 
ties in  the  point  where  English  temper  has  always  been  sensi-' 
tive.  An  Englishman  believes  that  if  you  have  the  heart 
to  rob  him  or  extort  money  from  him,  there  is  really  no  crime 
to  which  you  will  not  presently  stoop.  '  The  feelings  of  the 
colonies,'  Burke  asserted  in  the  British  House  of  Commons, 
'  were  formerly  the  feelings  of  Great  Britain.     Theirs  were 


Ch.  iv.]  The  Immediate  Cause  of  Quarrel.  53 

formerly  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Hampden  when  called  upon  for 
the  payment  of  twenty  shillings.  Would  twenty  shillings 
have  ruined  Mr.  Hampden's  fortune  ?  No !  but  the  pay- 
ment of  half  twenty  shillings,  on  the  principle  it  was  de- 
manded, would  have  made  him  a  slave.' 

This  is  all  quite  true,  but  we  must  at  this  day  insist  strongly 
on  what  lay  in  the  background.  The  cardinal  event  which 
had  just  taken  place  was  the  deliverance  of  the  colonies  from 
all  fear  of  French  aggression,  or  even  rivalry.  And  this  had 
been  done  chiefly  as  an  imperial  measure  for  the  good,  of  the 
empire.  Should  it  not  therefore  have  been  paid  for  by 
imperial  contributions?  and,  if  so,  who  should  levy  these 
except  the  imperial  authority  ?  Or,  if  it  be  taken  that  the  Par- 
liament of  England  was  not  superior  to,  but  only  co-ordinate 
with,  the  colonial  parliaments — a  position  repudiated  by 
Burke — where  was  the  gratitude  of  the  daughter-commu- 
nities for  the  essential  assistance  rendered  against  the 
power  of  France?  Gratitude  certainly  seems  to  have  little 
place  among  national  motives.  De  Garden,  the  historian  of 
Treaties,  says  that  even  after  France  had  helped  America  it 
would  have  been  unwise  to  reckon  gratitude  for  this  help  as 
a  force  of  any  value  in  determining  the  future  :  such  a  confi- 
dence would  have  been  un  calcul  erroni en  politique.  It  was 
this  feeling  that  the  colonies  were  ungrateful  that  rankled  in 
many  English  minds,  and,  combining  with  the  widespread 
opinion  that  their  assemblies  were  rather  municipal  than 
national  in  character,  more  like  borough  corporations  than 
parliaments,  gave  ground  for  the  determined  endeavour  to 
hold  the  colonists  to  the  principle  at  least  of  contributing  to 
the  imperial  revenue.  To  allow  that  their  consent  must  be 
asked,  that  their  contributions  should  be  voluntary  benevo- 
lences, was  to  make  a  breach  in  the  constitution  of  the  empire, 
and  to  diminish  the  authority  of  the  Parliament  in  which  we 
so  much  trusted,  and  which  foreigners  like  Montesquieu  so 
heartily  called  upon  us  to  admire.  Chatham  had  a  view  which 
led  him  to  take  up  without  reserve  the  colonists'  side.  He 
considered  that  their  assemblies  were  full  parliaments,  that 
the  Crown  was  the  imperial  authority;  the  colonies  were 


54  Development  and  Separation  of  America.     [Ch.  iv. 

originally  planted  by  royal  patents  or  charters  and  had  never 
come  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  English  Parliament.  *  I 
rejoice  therefore,'  said  he, '  that  America  has  resisted.'  Burke 
supported  the  colonists  because  they  were  strong  and  desired 
this  power  for  themselves ;  he  took  it  as  a  matter  of  expe- 
diency, not  of  abstract  right ;  they  had  always  been  consulted, 
he  said,  and  even  now  were  willing  to  contribute  voluntarily ; 
the  old  plan  should  continue.  And  so  the  most  philosophi- 
cally minded  of  all  our  parliamentary  statesmen  was  found 
for  once  leaving  philosophy  and  deciding  by  the  ex- 
pediencies of  the  situation.  Lord  Mansfield,  the  great 
lawyer,  solidly  and  calmly  vindicated  the  supremacy  of 
Parliament,  and  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  his  pamphlet  Taxatioti 
no  Tyranny  on  the  same  side. 

The  Conflict. 

The  story  of  the  crisis  and  its  issue  is  very  easy  to  follow. 
Its  chief  events  were  the  Stamp  Act  of  1765,  the  protest  from 
a  congress  of  nine  colonies,  the  repeal  of  the  Act ;  the  Six- 
Duties  ;  the  retaining  of  the  solitary  Tea  Duty  and  its  preamble 
asserting  the  right  to  tax ;  the  disturbances  at  Boston,  the 
closing  of  that  port  \  the  decision  of  Virginia;  the  gradual 
acquiescence  of  the  other  colonies,  and  the  Declaration  that 
a  new  Nation  was  formed,  July  4th,  1 776.  Physical  force  was 
the  only  means  of  settling  a  dispute  in  which  strong  reason 
and  powerful  sentiment  were  found  on  each  side.  The  military 
campaigns  were  marked  by  varying  fortunes.  Washington 
earned  a  military  fame  like  that  of  William  of  Orange,  great 
after  defeat  and  between  defeats.  And  Franklin  as  the  re- 
presentative in  France  of  the  new  nation  proved  himself  a 
first-rate  diplomatist,  and  an  imposing  advocate  of  the  new 
Republican  principles.  The  employment  of  Hessian  troops 
by  the  British  Government1  was  a  great  blunder ;  it  introduced 

1  We  hired  4000  men  from  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  1 2,000  from 
the  Landgrave  of  Cassel,  608  from  Hesse  Cassel.  On  this  the 
Americans  declared  themselves  independent,  partly  in  order  that  they 
in  turn  might  be  able  to  resort  to  foreign  aid  ;  France  not  only  lent 
them  money  freely,,  but  also  guaranteed  a  loan  from  Holland. 


Ch.  iv.]  Reflexions.  55 

an  alien  element,  and  led  to  the  intervention  of  France  and 
Spain  with  their  navies,  66  line-of-battle  ships,  and  so,  by 
affecting  our  communications,  weakened  our  greatest  ad- 
vantage. To  some  degree  their  interposition  led  to  a 
softening  of  our  animosity  against  the  Americans,  on  the 
principle  that  a  stranger  is  in  peril  who  interferes  in 
contentions  among  members  of  a  family.  Chatham  had 
urged  that  we  should  leave  America  alone  and  deal  with 
France,  but  he  died  soon  after  Franklin  had  negotiated  the 
treaty  of  alliance  between  France  and  the  new  States.  Then 
in  all  minds  animosity  took  a  new  direction,  and  anxiety  to 
keep  the  colonists  in  allegiance  gave  place  to  eagerness  to 
cope  again  with  our  continental  foe.  And  so  it  was  that  the 
shame  of  the  capitulation  at  York  Town  was  softened  into 
sorrow  for  the  ordinary  fortunes  of  war  as  our  troops  filed 
past  the  French  regulars  (landed  from  their  navy),  paying 
them  the  salutation  due  to  conquerors,  but  ignoring  the 
American  militia  who  stood  by  them. 

Beflexions. 

Some  reflexions  upon  the  history  of  the  separation  suggest 
themselves. 

(i)  //  is  surprising  that  Great  Britain  so  nearly  held  her 
own.  The  distance  was  great,  but  it  was  not  so  serious 
a  difficulty  as  that  caused  by  other  dangers  then  threaten- 
ing us.  That  we  held  on  for  seven  years  before  relaxing 
our  efforts  when  our  minds  were  full  enough  of  perplex- 
ities at  home  and  abroad  is  itself  a  fact  to  be  borne  in 
mind.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  were  ready  to  give  up 
the  effort  two  years  before  we  were  compelled  to  do  so :  it 
was  regard  for  our  loyalists  in  the  colonies  and  in  Canada 
which  compelled  us  to  persevere  so  long  as  there  was  any 
reasonable  hope. 

(ii)  There  is  also  ground  for  being  surprised  that  we  did  not 
hold  our  own  altogether.  The  colonists  were  only  nominally 
a  'nation'  at  first.  The  Congress — whose  officer  Washington 
was — had  no  powers  except  by  the  voluntary  consent  of  the 
constituent  states,  and  some  of  these  were  supine  in  the  ex- 


56  Development  and  Separation  of  America.     [Ch.iv. 

treme.  The  middle  group — Pennsylvania  and  New  York — 
thought  more  of  the  disturbance  of  business  than  of  political 
principles.  There  was  always  a  strong  body  of  Loyalists,  some 
of  whom  resented  the  Independence  measures  so  strongly 
that  when  the  war  was  over  they  crossed  to  the  British 
territory  in  Canada.  The  militia  system  was  not  adapted  for 
a  prolonged  struggle ;  at  the  end  of  each  year  many  re- 
turned to  their  farms  and  their  merchandise.  If  the  French 
had  not  appeared  on  the  scene  it  is  possible  that  a  consider- 
able party  might  have  wearied  of  the  struggle,  and  deferred 
the  solution  of  the  question  at  least  for  a  time. 

(iii)  It  is  only  by  hasty  or  prejudiced  judgment  that  we 
are  impelled  to  throw  ourselves  with  enthusiasm  com- 
pletely on  the  side  of  the  resisting  colonists.  There  were 
some  ignoble  motives  on  their  side,  and  some  honourable 
motives  on  the  side  of  the  British  Government.  For  an 
unbiassed  opinion  we  may  turn  to  De  Garden  {Treaties, 
vol.  iv.  p.  208),  where  he  finds  no  question  of  rights  and 
liberties  in  any  high  sense  on  the  side  of  the  Americans, 
but  sees  simply  a  desire  to  quit  a  connexion  grown  useless. 
'  It  was  only,'  he  points  out, '  after  the  disappearance  of  France 
from  Canada,  and  the  Spaniards  from  Florida,  that  British 
dominion  was  suddenly  discovered  to  be  intolerable.'  And  on 
our  side  that  we  fought  for  a  preamble  attached  to  a  single 
unremunerative  tax  shows  that  it  was  not  substantial  revenue 
but  a  principle  of  government  that  was  set  in  the  very  front  of 
our  policy,  and  we  cannot  allow  the  charge  of  narrowminded- 
ness  or  petty  tyranny  to  pass  unchallenged  into  history. 
Until  the  introduction  of  the  German  mercenaries  by  us  and 
the  acceptance  of  French  support  by  the  Americans,  the  con- 
test was  of  the  nature  of  a  Civil  War  for  a  principle,  and  it  is 
hardly  rash  to  say  that  our  sympathies  ought  probably  to 
follow  our  political  views  :  if  we  have  '  high '  theories  of 
government,  we  shall  think  that  Mansfield  and  Johnson  and 
Grenville  and  North  were  in  the  right ;  if  we  consider 
constant  operation  of  the  popular  will  to  be  fundamentally 
necessary,  we  shall  side  with  the  assemblies  of  America 
when  they  claim  that  by  them  alone  was  American  will 


Ch.  iv.]  Reflexions.  57 

effectively  expressed.  And  after  all,  it  will  be  allowed  by 
both  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time.  Sooner  or  later 
the  spirit  of  the  English  constitution  would  have  required 
either  that  the  local  assemblies  should  be  recognised  as 
parliaments,  or  that  representatives  should  be  sent  to  the 
British  Parliament. 

(iv)  There  were  great  compensations  for  our  loss.  The 
departure  of  the  colonies  from  our  political  system,  and 
from  our  monopoly  system  in  trade,  came  just  at  the  time 
when  the  axe  was  being  laid  by  Adam  Smith  to  the  root  of 
the  monopoly  system  of  trade.  And  De  Garden  points  out 
as  compensations, — 

1.  That  our  trade  increased  by  virtue  of  the  increase  of 

prosperity  of  the  new  nation. 

2.  That  the  agricultural  development  of  the  United  States 

continued  to  extend  demand  for  our  manufactures. 

3.  In    the    East,   England    was    at   this   time    obtaining 

several  new  markets  hitherto  monopolized  by  Holland. 
Special  articles  in  the  Treaties  of  Versailles,  articles 
agreed  to  with  great  reluctance  by  the  Dutch,  pro- 
vided for  this. 


CHAPTER   V. 
The  English  in  India. 

It  was  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1600  that  a  Ccnnpany 
of  merchants  received  a  charter  for  trade  to  the  East  Indies 
under  conditions  as  to  laws  and  monopoly  and  international 
relations,  very  similar  to  those  inserted  in  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert's  charter  for  Newfoundland  (p.  23) ;  and  in  imitation 
of  the  Dutch  we  more  or  less  persistently  endeavoured  to 
set  up  commercial  establishments  on  the  coast  of  Hindostan. 
Little  could  it  be  foreseen  that  the  various  European  Facto- 
ries set  up  by  treaty  with  neighbouring  potentates  were  the 
roots  of  the  first  power  which  should  rule  the  whole  Peninsula, 
and  still  less  could  it  be  surmised  that  the  change  would  come, 
not  from  long  established  Portuguese  Goa  or  the  wealthy 
and  numerous  Dutch  settlements,  but  from  the  modest 
British  Company  with  a  capital  of  ,£30,000,  established  to  do 
some  trade  in  pepper  and  spices,  which  had  succeeded  in 
settling  itself  at  Fort  William,  Fort  George,  and  Bombay. 
The  story  of  the  conquest  of  India  is  too  complicated  to  be 
narrated  here ;  for  full  comprehension  an  elaborate  study  of 
geography  and  ethnology  and  history  is  necessary.  But 
some  features  can  be  delineated  which  are  of  singular  sig- 
nificance and  interest  to  the  student  of  modern  history. 

India:  what  it  is. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  term  '  India  '  is 
neither  an  ethnological  nor  a  national  expression,  but 
rather  a  geographical  term:  it  describes  peoples  only  by 
their   dwelling-place— the  peninsula   from    the    Himalayas 


India  :  what  it  is.  59 

to  Cape  Comorin.  The  number  of  '  peoples 5  and  their 
relationships  cannot  be  shown  in  any  simple  way.  A  popula- 
tion of  some  280  millions  is  composed  of  peoples  differing 
from  one  another  more  than  Prussians  and  Scotchmen  differ 
from  Spaniards  and  Italians.  There  are  one  hundred  living 
languages,  at  least,  of  which  twenty  are  '  cultivated '  ones. 
To  put  the  facts  very  succinctly,  there  are  (1)  aboriginal 
inhabitants,  especially  in  the  hill  and  forest  regions  and 
diffused  elsewhere  as  the  low  castes,  (2)  a  vast  population 
of  non-Aryan  descent  speaking  Tamil,  Telugu,  and  kindred 
tongues  ;  (3)  the  results  of  waves  of  early  Aryan  immigration 
which  came  down  the  Ganges  and  Indus  valleys ;  succeeded 
later  (4)  by  streams  of  Mohammedan  Aryans,  both  Persian 
and  Afghan.  And  so  it  comes  about  that  neither  religion 
nor  language  is  more  than  a  general  clue  to  classification  to 
be  most  carefully  used,  for  many  of  the  earlier  races  were 
won  over  to  the  religion  of  their  conquerors,  and  more  or 
less  completely  to  their  languages.  At  the  same  time  it  must 
be  remembered  that  these  races  have  now  lived  together  for 
centuries,  and  that  there  is  a  single  religious  system  pre- 
dominant, Hinduism  or  Brahmanism,  which  includes  200 
millions  of  the  population.  And  there  has  been  a  very  con- 
siderable reduction  of  such  differences  as  arise  from  Race  by 
the  intimacy  with  which  the  Hindu  Religion  enters  into  the 
ordering  of  daily  life  and  the  formation  of  habits  of  mind. 
Natives  of  India  declare  themselves  sensible  of  a  more  close 
affinity  with  one  another  throughout  the  peninsula  than 
English  writers  have  usually  supposed  \ 

1  '  This  much  can  be  said  without  contradiction,  that  the  Hindus 
from  all  parts  of  India  have  manners,  customs,  sentiments,  likes  and 
dislikes,  very  much  alike,  differing  now  and  then  in  minor  particu- 
lars owing  to  local  exigencies.  If  any  one  wishes  to  see  these  facts 
for  himself,  let  him  go  to  Benares,  or  to  Haridwar  near  the  Hima- 
layas, or  to  Rames'varam  in  the  extreme  south,  and  he  will  find 
what  a  vivifying  power  the  Hindu  Religion  is.  The  Gurkhas  that 
come  from  Nepaul,  the  Sheikhs  of  Panjab,  the  Telagu  and  Tamil- 
speaking  communities  in  the  south,  meet  on  the  common  ground  of 
one  religion,  one  nation,  sharing  the  same  feelings  and  sentiments.' — 
{Private  letter  from  a  Brahman  student  at  Cambridge,  April,  1891.) 


6o  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

Our  Establishment  of  Kule. 

The  history  of  the  gradual  establishment  of  our  rule  may 
be  divided  into  the  following  periods  : — 

(i)  The  Period  of  Factories,  1612-1746,  when  we  had 
only  trading  settlements  on  equal  terms  with  other  European 
nations. 

(2)  The  Struggle  with  France  for  paramount  influence 
in  the  Carnatic  district  (S.  E.  India),  1 746-1 759. 

Macaulay's  essay  on  Clive  gives  full  credit  to  the  vigour 
of  the  French  attempt.  M.  Duruy's  History  of  France  shows 
how  it  is  regarded  by  Frenchmen  of  to-day.  In  India,  he 
writes,  France  had  two  eminent  men,  La  Bourdonnais  and 
Dupleix ;  had  they  been  able  to  work  together,  and  had 
they  been  supported,  they  would  have  gained  Hindostan  for 
France.  The  former  had  given  prosperity  to  the  islands 
of  Bourbon  and  Mauritius,  and  made  France  supreme 
in  the  south  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Dupleix  was  forming 
great  projects  for  driving  us  from  India;  he  desired  that 
the  French  Company,  of  which  he  was  the  administrator 
in  India,  should  be  aggrandized  not  only  by  commerce  but 
by  territory.  But  these  two  leaders  disagreed :  the  former 
was  recalled  and  put  in  the  Bastille ;  the  latter,  supplied,  as 
he  complained,  not  with  money  and  good  soldiers,  but  with  '  la 
plus  vile  canaille/  failed  against  Clive,  was  in  his  turn  recalled, 
and  died  in  misery  in  Paris.  Lally,  an  Irishman  in  the 
French  service,  of  unconquerable  courage  if  not  of  large 
ideas,  but  without  resources  behind  him,  had  to  make  war 
on  the  Indian  rajahs,  and  could  not  prevent  Clive  from 
carrying  all  before  him.  His  soldiers  refused  to  enter  the  open 
breach  of  Madras  because  they  were  unpaid.  He  himself  with 
700  men  defended  Pondicherry  against  22,000  for  nine 
months.  It  was  taken  and  razed,  and  '  ce  fut  le  coup  de 
mort  pour  la  domination  francaise  dans  l'lnde.  Elle  ne  s'y 
est  pas  relevee.'  Or  as  another  Frenchman  puts  it — Louis 
Blanc — 'By  whom  was  France  vanquished  in  India?  By 
France  herself:  by  the  rivalry  between  Dupleix  and  La 
Bourdonnais.'  In  considering  what  a  despotic  monarchy  can 
do  in  the  way  of  making  use  of  great  men,  we  must  note  that 


Ch.v.]  Our  Establishment  of  Rule.  61 

the  colonial  history  of  France  records  the  sad  fact  that  the 
two  most  distinguished  men  who  promoted  her  imperial 
interests  beyond  the  seas,  and  gave  her  a  temporary  promise 
of  colonial  greatness,  both  died  in  the  bitterness  of  unde- 
served disgrace.  The  grand  services  of  Colbert  earned  him 
a  dismissal,  with  reproach,  from  the  king  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  a  secret  burial  by  night  for  fear  of  the  populace. 
One  hundred  years  later,  Dupleix,  the  inventor  of  the  method 
of  conquering  India  for  Europe,  found  neither  king  nor 
people  more  appreciative  or  more  just. 

(3)  The  Period  of  Clive,  1751-1767.-0^  firm  estab- 
lishment in  the  Carnatic  and  our  mastery  of  Bengal. 

(4)  The  Period  of  Warren  Hastings,  1772-1785. — 
The  first  Governor-General,  the  extension  of  dominion  by 
means  of  the  Subsidiary  system. 

(5)  Lord  Cornwallis  and  Administrative  Reform, 
1 786-1 798. — A  non-intervention  policy  towards  the  Native 
States. 

(6)  Lords  Wellesley  and  Hastings  and  the  Sub- 
sidiary System  resumed,  1 798-1 828:  dominion  greatly 
extended. 

(7)  Lord  William  Bentinck  and  Economic  and 
Social  Reforms,  1 828-1 848. 

(8)  Lord  Dalhousie,  Extension,  Annexation,  and 
Industrial  Improvement  (Railways),  1848-1857. 

(9)  The  Mutiny,  and  Abolition  of  the  Company  as  an 
intermediary  in  administration,  1857. — The  Company  was  at 
first  a  body  of  traders  protected  in  certain  trade  privileges  by 
royal  charter.  But  powers  of  another  kind  had  soon  to  be 
applied  for  and  they  were  granted  ;  in  1624  the  Company  was 
empowered  to  punish  its  servants  while  out  of  England  either 
by  application  of  civil  law  or  by  martial  law ;  in  1664  it 
was  empowered  to  levy  war  on  any  prince  or  nation  'not 
Christian.'  This  allowed  it  to  raise  and  employ  troops 
and  to  become  in  effect  a  belligerent  power.  Afterwards  an 
independent  High  Court  of  Justice  was  set  up.  The  India 
Bill  of  Mr.  Pitt  (1784)  established  a  Board  of  Control  as  a 
Government  Department  to  aid  and  control  the  Company  in 


62 


The  English  in  India. 


[Ch.  v. 


Ch.  V.] 


Our  Establishment  of  Rule. 


63 


64  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

its  government,  especially  in  territorial  matters ;  the  presi- 
dent of  this  Board  was  necessarily  a  member  of  the  Cabinet ; 
and  the  commandership  of  the  forces  was  made  a  Crown 
appointment.  Both  the  Company  and  the  Board  were 
abolished  in  1858  and  a  Secretary  of  State  with  a  Council 
instituted. 
(10)  Attempts  to  determine  a  scientific  frontier 


INDIA 

As  left  by  Lord  Dufferin 

1888. 


Pishin 


Note. 
The  Feudatory  States 
are  over  200  in  number 
with  about-%- of  the  Population 


Walker  &•  Botitall  sc. 

on  the  North-West,  and  inclusion  of  the  kingdom  of  Upper 
Burmah  on  the  East,  185 8-1886. 

(11)  And,  finally,  concentration  of  attention  on  Industrial 
and  social  development,  1886  onwards. 

Professor  Seeley's  indication  of  the  stages  of  development 
by  means  of  the  dates  of  the  renewal  of  the  Company's 
charter  is  very  convenient  and  instructive.     In  1773  was 


Ch.  v.]  Our  Establishment  of  Rule.  65 

instituted  the  Governor-Generalship  and  a  Supreme  Court 
of  Justice;  in  1793  the  Settlement  of  Bengal  was  made,  and 
public  expressions  of  Anglo-Indian  opinion  that  India  ought 
not  to  be  either  Anglicized  or  Christianized  were  put  forward  ; 
in  1813,  when  the  monopoly  began  to  be  withdrawn,  and  the 
country  to  be  thrown  open1 ;  in  1833,  the  monopoly  in  trade 
was  at  an  end,  and  legislative  labour  began  in  a  systematic 
way — Macaulay's  share  in  Indian  Government  was  from  1834 
to  1838;  in  1853  the  constitution  of  the  Civil  Service  by  com- 
petition was  introduced  ;  then  came  the  convulsion  of  1857, 
and  the  series  of  changes  ends. 

The  deepest  impression  upon  the  reflecting  mind  is  a 
simple  one — that  made  by  the  astonishing  fact  itself  that 
England  rules  India.  As  an  illustration  of  the  function  of 
Mind  in  the  movement  of  the  world  it  is  of  singular  force. 
We  see  a  '  conquest '  achieved  by  a  nation  not  populous 
relatively,  and  far  away  from  contact — Henry  Martyn  was 
eighteen  months  in  getting  to  the  scene  of  his  labours — and, 
while  it  was  going  on,  England  fought  America  and  France, 
continued  to  found  colonies,  and  was  taking  her  place  at  the 
head  of  the  manufactures  and  trade  of  the  world.  Mahmud 
of  Ghazni  was  next  neighbour  to  India  ;  Timour  had  no  other 
pursuits  than  that  of  leading  his  immense  hordes ;  but 
European  civilization  gave  us  greater  advantage  than  either 
contiguity  or  numbers.  Reading  the  history  of  the  past  cen- 
turies of  India  we  feel  that  our  establishment  as  its  undis- 
puted rulers  is  a  historical  fact  which  has  hardly  a  parallel. 

To  the  student  of  history,  and  to  the  student  of  politics 
especially,  our  position  in  India  suggests  certain  specific 
questions  of  great  interest.  In  endeavouring  to  answer  them 
the  intention  is  not  to  settle  them  dogmatically,  but  to  suggest 
where  answers  may  be  sought. 

1  Macaulay  in  1834  found  the  new  spirit  so  active  in  Anglo- 
Indians  that  he  says  of  his  brother-in-law,  Trevelyan,  '  He  has  no 
small  talk.  His  mind  is  full  of  schemes  of  moral  and  political  im- 
provement, and  his  zeal  boils  over  in  his  talk.  His  topics,  even  in 
courtship,  are  steam  navigation,  the  education  of  the  natives,  the 
equalization  of  the  sugar-duties,  the  substitution  of  the  Roman  for 
the  Arabic  alphabet  in  the  Oriental  languages.' — (Life  and  Letters, 
anno  1834.) 

F 


66  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.  v. 

I.  What  right  have  the  English  in  India  ? 

As  owners,  none.  This  is  no  case  of  a  territory  sparsely 
inhabited  or  inadequately  cultivated  where  we  may  very 
easily  find  good  reasons  for  joining  in  occupation,  if  not 
for  actually  displacing  those  whom  we  find  in  possession. 
On  the  face  of  it,  India  is  in  civilized  occupation  already  ; 
the  backwardness  is  not  such  that  the  moral  right  of  tenure 
was  forfeited,  as  may  be  asserted  of  New  Zealand,  for  example, 
where  we  maintain  600,000  people  in  a  higher  state  of  com- 
fort and  convenience  than  one-eighth  of  that  number 
could  attain  before  we  took  possession.  So  that  we  dis- 
tinctly repudiate  the  idea  of  ownership,  and  we  speak 
only  with  hasty  carelessness  of  India  as  our  'possession1'; 
the  correct  style  is  our  '  Dependency.'  The  cities  and  vil- 
lages and  lands  belong,  in  the  main,  to  the  same  owners  as 
they  did  before  we  went  there ;  we  have  not  entered 
upon  possession  as  the  Israelites  did  in  Canaan,  or 
the  Normans  in  England.  Estates  have  been  acquired 
by  companies  and  individuals,  e.  g.  in  Assam  and 
Ceylon,  but  on  terms  of  purchase.  The  famous  Perma- 
nent Settlement  of  Bengal  does  certainly  appear  to  have 
been  a  blunder  of  the  first  magnitude.  The  fortunate  zemin- 
dars or  revenue  agents  who  happened  to  be  in  office  one 
hundred  years  ago  were  treated  as  if  they  were  proprietors. 
The  Government  was  to  receive  revenue  from  them  as  a  tax 
might  be  taken  from  English  landowners.  As  it  is,  the 
twelve  million  ryot-holdings  in  the  Province  pay  some 
;£  1 3,000,000  a  year  rent  to  these  zemindars,  of  which  the 
Government  receives  ,£5,600,000.  But  even  so,  the  inten- 
tion was  sound  enough  ;  knowledge  of  the  real  relations  of 
Government  and  zemindars  and  ryots  under  the  old  States  was 
what  was  lacking ;  there  was  in  no  sense  any  appropriation 
on  the  part  of  Englishmen. 

1  How  wholesome  has  been  the  effect  of  abolishing  the  East 
India  Company  is  shown  in  the  change  of  idea  of  our  relationship 
to  India.  Even  Wilberforce,  when  working  hard  for  an  opening  for 
Christian  effort  in  181 3,  speaks  of  the  Hindus  not  only  as  our  fellow- 
subjects,  but  as  our  •  tenants ' ;  evidently  thinking  that  we  did, 
through  the  Company,  possess  India. 


Ch.  v.]  The  Basis  of  our  Rule.  67 

Again,  as  conquerors,  no  right  is  claimed  by  us.  We  do 
not  hold  India  by  the  title  of  conquerors  in  the  sense  that 
the  Spaniards  held  Mexico  ;  we  subject  it  to  no  tribute  ;  we 
impose  upon  it  no  restrictions  in  order  that  profit  should  be 
artificially  diverted  for  our  own  benefit.  We  are  there  now 
as  rulers  \  The  right  upon  which  we  rely  as  a  reasonable 
justification  for  being  there  is  the  right  of  doing  good  by 
ruling.  We  challenge  the  judgment  of  the  world  on  the  issue 
that  we  are  doing  better  for  the  nations  of  India  than 
any  rulers  of  whom  we  have  heard,  or  than  any  that  would 
come  forward  if  we  retired.  True,  we  are  acting  as  judges  of 
our  own  case ;  but  it  is  a  situation  in  which  no  higher  court 
is  known  than  our  consciousness  of  the  responsibility  of 
nations  to  the  Righteous  Ruler  of  the  universe.  In  proof 
that  our  decision  is  due  to  no  merely  private  bias  of  our  own, 
competent  foreign  observers  can  be  quoted.  Baron  von 
Hiibner,  formerly  Austrian  Ambassador  in  Paris  and  Rome, 
thus  sums  up  his  impression  of  English  influence  in  India 
{Through  the  British  Empire,  1886,  vol.  ii.  p.  250)  : — 

1  No  one  can  deny  that  the  British  India  of  our  days  presents  a 
spectacle  which  is  unique  and  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  What  do  we  see?  Instead  of  periodical  if  not  per- 
manent wars,  profound  peace  firmly  established  throughout  the 
whole  empire ;  moderate  taxes ;  the  tribunals  already  beginning  to 
make  their  influence  felt  on  native  morality  and  notions  of  right ; 
perfect  security  in  all  the  cities  as  well  as  in  the  country  districts  and 
on  the  roads ;  materially,  an  unexampled  bound  of  prosperity  .  .  . 
And  what  has  wrought  all  these  miracles  ?  The  wisdom  and  courage 
of  a  few  directing  statesmen,  the  bravery  and  discipline  of  an  army 
composed  of  a  small  number  of  Englishmen  and  a  large  number  of 
natives,  led  by  heroes ;  and  last,  and  I  will  venture  to  say  prin- 

1  In  asserting  this  view  it  is  not  meant  that  this  was  the  original 
position  taken  up  by  the  British,  or  by  any  other  European  nations, 
in  the  East.  Certainly  the  natives  of  India  are  far  from  allowing  us 
any  such  motives.  They  think  that  it  was  the  climate  alone  which 
prevented  us  from  proceeding  in  India  as  the  Normans  did  in  England. 
And,  indeed,  they  are  not  even  now  willing  to  recognise  the  dis- 
tinction drawn  in  the  text.  They  regard  our  '  ruling'  as  based  upon 
1  possession.' 

F  2 


68  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

cipally,  the  devotion  and  intelligence,  the  courage,  the  perseverance, 
and  the  skill,  combined  with  an  integrity  proof  against  all  tempta- 
tion, of  a  handful  of  officials  and  magistrates  who  govern  and  ad- 
minister the  Indian  Empire.' 

Dr.  Geffcken,  the  eminent  German  publicist  (The  British 
Empire,  1889),  says  : — 

*  There  is  not  the  shadow  of  doubt  that,  after  the  fall  of  English 
authority,  the  ancient  anarchy  would  assert  itself  once  more.'  (p.  3 1 .) 

'  English  rule  has  been  cheerfully  borne  because  India  has  never 
been  so  well  governed  before.'  (p.  31.) 

'  The  acts  of  Clive  and  Warren  Hastings  are  not  to  be  palliated  ; 
but  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the  English  government 
of  India  has  been  so  good  that  India  has  never  before  known  the 
like  of  it.'  (p.  1 7.) 

We  have  said  above  that  we  subject  India  to  no  tribute. 
This  is  denied  by  many,  whose  opinions  are  vigorously  and 
with  great  array  of  statistics  expressed  by  Mr.  Dadabhai 
Naoroji  (Essays,  Speeches,  and  Addresses,  Bombay,  1887). 
Whatever  might  be  the  value  of  his  figures,  we  should  still 
maintain  that  they  cannot  now  be  used  to  sustain  the  position 
that  we  exact  tribute  as  such.  We  certainly  wish  now  to 
receive  nothing  from  India  for  which  we  do  not  give  a  quid 
pro  quo.  We  fondly,  but  we  hope  not  foolishly,  trust  that  we 
offer  services  in  return  for  all  that  we  receive.  If  it  can  be 
shown  that  we  exaggerate  their  value,  we  hope  that  we  are 
willing  to  consider  the  charge.  But  the  British  State  makes 
no  claim  whatever  to  receive  revenue  from  the  provinces  of 
India,  and  we  are  hoodwinked  by  those  in  authority  if  any 
such  revenue  is  levied.  A  considerable  yearly  sum  is  cer- 
tainly received  by  us,  but  the  corresponding  services  can  be 
plainly  indicated.  Our  countrymen  in  the  Military  and  the  Civil 
Services  spend  but  a  portion  of  their  income  in  India  because 
most  of  them  have  domestic  expenses  in  England,  where 
their  children  are  educated;  they  retire  on  pensions,  after 
service  in  a  tropical  country,  and  India  has  to  remit  these 
pensions,  but  this  is  only  instead  of  paying  higher  salaries 
during  active  employment.  Heavy  remittances  are  made  as 
interest  on  the  loans  by  which  Railways  and  Public  Works 


Ch.  V.]  The  Basis  of  our  Rule.  69 

were  constructed,  and  as  profits  on  trading  operations  carried 
on  by  English  capitalists.  There  has  been  some  '  booty,'  not 
to  say '  plunder,'  in  the  days  gone  by,  but,  the  era  of  conquest 
being  past,  such  consequence  of  the  regime  of  war  has,  we 
trust,  finally  disappeared,  and  whatever  we  receive  henceforth 
will  be  on  purely  economic  principles— interest  on  capital  lent, 
wages  for  services  rendered,  or  profits  on  legitimate  trade. 
We  can  now  claim  that  the  principle  laid  down  by  John 
Bright,  not  as  the  highest,  but  as  the  lowest  that  we  can 
accept,  is  generally  operative :  .'  You  may  govern  India,  if 
you  like,  for  the  good  of  England  ;  but  the  good  of  England 
must  come  through  the  channel  of  the  good  of  India.' 
II.  Can  it  ever  be  right  to  seize  and  keep  the 

REINS  OF  AUTHORITY  BY  FORCE? 

If  one  thing  stands  out  more  vividly  than  another  in 
Professor  Seeley's  brilliant  chapters  on  India,  it  is  the  striking 
fact  that  it  was  not  by  force,  in  the  sense  of  the  overbear- 
ing of  moral  energy  by  superior  physical  might,  that  we  either 
acquired  or  maintained  our  position  in  India.  We  have  won 
our  way,  not  by  weight  of  physical  might,  but  by  moral 
energy.  If  we  read  over  the  accounts  of  the  defence  of  Arcot, — 
the  battle  of  Plassey, — the  defence  of  Lucknow ;  or  consider  the 
relative  numbers,  and  the  fact  that  we  were  in  hostile  regions, 
our  opponents  in  the  heart  of  their  own  territories ;  or  note 
how  many  of  our  soldiers  were  not  European,  but  Sepoys, 
and  how  these  Sepoys  seemed  in  crises  to  count  for  very 
nearly  as  much  as  Europeans,  it  begins  to  seem  as  if 
a  handful  of  civil  servants  and  officers  had  conquered 
India  !  The  mistake  is  in  supposing  that  the  Indian  popu- 
lations were  homogeneous,  and  that  there  was  any  sentiment 
of  disloyalty  to  a  fatherland  in  the  minds  of  Indian  princes 
who  joined  with  us  in  alliance  against  other  Indian  poten- 
tates, or  of  Indian  soldiers  who  entered  our  conquering  legions. 
Because  Vortigern  called  in  the  roving  sea-pirates  to  help  him 
against  his  fellow-countrymen,  we  despise  him  for  his  selfish 
lack  of  patriotism  and  of  sense  of  kinship ;  but  had  those  pirates 
been  used  by  Saxons  to  keep  out  Normans,  or  by  Normans 
to  help  to  conquer  Saxons,  we  should  have  thought  it  quite 


7°  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

natural.  True,  had  Saxons  called  in  Saracens,  or  the  Nor- 
mans landed  with  a  contingent  of  Tartars,  we  should  have 
condemned  the  intrusion  ;  and  to  a  similar  extent  we  do  con- 
demn the  Hindoo  Rajahs  who  thought  that  they  could  use 
French  or  English  help  for  their  internecine  feuds.  At  the 
time  of  the  mutiny  the  Sikhs  rallied  to  our  banner  because 
to  them  '  Delhi  was  the  accursed  city  of  the  Mogul,  the 
centre  of  Mussulman  arrogance,  the  place  of  martyrdom  of 
the  great  Sikh  prophets,  devoted  by  their  predictions  to  the 
vengeance  of  their  disciples.'  Whether  we  condemn  the 
natives  or  not,  their  rulers,  at  least,  showed  no  signs  of  con- 
demning themselves,  but,  to  their  own  ultimate  confusion, 
presented  themselves  as  ready  instruments  of  empire  to 
Dupleix  and  Clive  and  Hastings.  By  means  of  a  system  of 
alliances  and  a  sagacious  use  of  their  rivalries,  our  capacity 
for  direction  and  organization  achieved  the  great  result. 

In  the  days  of  Clive  there  were  not  10,000  of  us  in  India : 
now  we  are  only  some  200,000.  In  the  army  in  1884,  the 
Natives  were  exactly  double  the  number  of  Europeans, 
126,000  to  63,000.  The  police  and  frontier  services  are  per- 
formed by  144,000  Native  Police,  mainly  under  European 
officers.  Of  course  there  is  other  force  in  reserve.  The 
home  Army  and  the  whole  British  Navy  would  be  called  upon 
to  support  the  Army  in  India  if  need  were  :  but,  after  all, 
not  many  men  could  be  spared  in  any  case,  and  perhaps  none 
at  all  if  England  were  engaged  in  war  at  the  time. 

The  true  situation  is  described  with  great  clearness  by 
Professor  Seeley.  No  great  display  or  exercise  of  force  has 
been  required,  or  is  required,  because  the  counter  force 
is  so  slight.  If  there  were  such  a  force  against  us  as  the 
united  will  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  Indian  nations,  we 
could  not  have  gained  supremacy  and  could  not  resist  expul- 
sion. If  a  flock  of  sheep  has  no  moral  determination  to  go 
northward  when  the  shepherd  desires  it  to  proceed  south- 
ward, southward  his  determination  will  make  it  go.  If  a 
panic  gives  them  a  combined  determination,  their  physical 
force  will  be  called  into  play,  and  they  will  stampede  without 
possibility  of  his  successful  resistance.     The  peoples  of  India 


Ch.v.]  The  Purpose  of  our  Rule.  71 

had  no  such  united  will,  and  the  determination  of  a  Commercial 
Company  in  an  advanced  stage  of  intelligence  and  discipline 
succeeded,  because  it  was  the  only  strong  force  in  operation  : 
but  the  force  was  the  force  of  mind  and  character  and  will. 
Whether  strong  wills  should  rule  weak  wills,  or  should  supply 
the  place  of  will  when  absent,  is  one  moral  question  ;  whether 
physical  might  should  overbear  physical  weakness  is  another. 
And  when  the  End  of  action  is  not  the  good  of  the  stronger 
alone,  but  the  common  good  of  both,  on  what  ground  is  a 
policy  to  be  arraigned  which  has  issued  in  the  placing  of 
rule  and  control  where  superior  moral  and  mental  strength 
are  found  ? 
III.  Should  not  all  Government  be  Self-Govern- 

MENT?      IS    NOT    A    BAD    NATIVE    GOVERNMENT    BETTER 
THAN  THE  BEST  FOREIGN  RULE  ? 

We  acknowledge  the  force  of  the  appeal  of  Byron's  Greek 
to  the  degenerate  modern  Greek  when  under  Turkey : — 

Dash  down  yon  cup  of  Samian  wine, 
We  may  not  think  on  themes  like  these ; 

They  made  Anacreon's  song  divine : 
He  served,  but  served  Polycrates — 

A  tyrant — but  our  tyrants  then 

Were  still  at  least  our  countrymen  ! 

In  British  minds  trained  to  admire  the  Greeks  at  Mara- 
thon, and  Bruce  at  Bannockburn,  and  William  the  Silent 
behind  the  dykes  of  Holland,  there  is  a  natural  objection  to 
being  now  called  upon  to  approve  of  ourselves  playing  the 
Persian,  the  Southron,  and  the  Spaniard.  It  would  seem  as 
if  we  must  re-read  much  history,  and  give  up  much  cherished 
poetry,  before  we  can  thoroughly  approve  of  our  position. 

In  the  first  place,  we  must  insist  on  the  distinction,  the  vital 
distinction,  between  subjection  and  education.  The  paramount 
purpose  of  our  rule  in  India  being  once  declared  to  be  the 
Education  of  India,  the  situation  differs  entirely  from 
those  mentioned  above.  Could  it  be  reasonably  maintained 
that  the  Persian  wanted  to  subject  Greece  for  its  own  good, 
or  that  the  Spaniard  desired  to  retain  the  Netherlands  for  the 


72  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

sake  of  fostering  the  prosperity  of  those  provinces,  our  sympa- 
thies would  be  at  once  affected,  and  the  question  we  should 
ask  wOuld  be  whether  the  Persians  and  Spaniards  possessed 
the  means  of  training  Greeks  and  Dutchmen  for  higher  things. 

Secondly,  we  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  nations  of 
India  have  long  lived  under  foreign  yokes :  conqueror  suc- 
ceeded conqueror;  few  indigenous  governments  are  found, 
and  the  mixture  of  populations  within  the  same  areas  has 
been  both  effect  and  cause  of  successive  waves  of  conquest. 
If  we  turn  over  the  pages  of  a  history  of  India,  it  soon 
becomes  plain  that  instead  of  imposing  a  tyranny  on  free 
peoples,  or  peoples  struggling  to  be  free,  we  have  substituted 
one  government  for  many,  a  lasting  government  for  incessant 
changes,  with  all  the  turmoil,  waste,  and  misery  which  fell 
upon  the  masses  as  hordes  of  new  conquerors  came  upon  the 
scene,  or  as  their  own  unstable  tyrannies  rose  and  fell. 

As  to  permanence,  that  is  a  relative  quality.  A  thousand 
years  would  hardly  seem  a  permanence  to  a  Chinese  historian. 
And  what  if  it  be  our  lot  to  be  of  all  the  tyrannies  of  India  the 
one  for  which  all  these  had  prepared  ?  the  final  stage  of  all 
tyranny,  under  which  new  peoples  are  to  be  fostered  until 
they,  by  acquiring  the  conditions  which  make  independence 
stable  and  beneficent,  secure  independence  itself  ?  This  is 
our  hope  and  aim.  And  one  thing  is  sure — when  their  day 
of  Marathon  arrives  they  will  have  their  freedom  ;  and  the 
battle  will  have  been  fought  finally,  not  with  sword  and 
shield,  or  rifle  and  artillery,  but  by  force  of  opinion  and 
intelligence,  rendering  our  continuance  in  India  an  anomaly 
and  an  intrusion.  There  is  here  a  prospect  of  a  strife  of  a 
new  kind ;  and  in  the  development  of  the  peoples  of  India 
we  are  cheerfully  educating  them  to  do  without  us.  Against 
the  idea  of  foreign  tyranny  we  oppose  our  claim  to  be  uphold- 
ing the  idea  of  Education  ;  for  the  schooling  of  these  nations 
we  believe  that  we  have  been  appointed— for  the  purpose 
was  not  in  our  own  minds  at  first ;  it  was  brought  out  only 
after  we  found  ourselves  charged  with  this  high  duty. 

Thirdly,  we  maintain  that  we  are  not,  to  the  Indian 
peoples,  altogether  an  alien  and  outside  government.    To 


Ch.v.]  The  Constitutional  Question.  j$ 

a  considerable  extent  we  are  working  upon  the  idea 
of  admitting  them  into  a  cotmnitnity  of  nations.  The 
British  Empire  is  a  quasi-federation,  of  which  India  is  a  chief 
member,  though  not  a  sharer  in  the  supreme  authority.  It  is 
by  rising  within  this  group  of  connected  nationalities  that  its 
progress  towards  self-rule  is  almost  certain  to  proceed.  A 
gradual  increase  of  the  sphere  of  its  local  authorities  will  at 
length  lead  up  to  a  share  in  the  supreme  control  of  the 
empire,  and  eventually,  no  doubt,  to  final  independence  : 
possibly  not  as  a  single  nation,  but  as  several.  This  is 
only  conjecture,  but  we  think  there  is  good  reason  for 
regarding  it  as  the  line  of  progress.  Every  effort  is  made 
to  awaken  and  to  strengthen  the  idea  that  Hindus,  Maories, 
and  Yorkshiremen  are  fellow-subjects  of  a  common  empire. 
The  path  of  constitutional  advance  for  all  will  be  determined 
as  a  problem  of  internal,  not  of  international,  policy. 

This  leads  to  our  next  question. 

iv.  is  it  not  entirely  inconsistent  with  english 
notions  of  Constitutional  Government  to  rule  a 
country  without  a  constitution  in  which  the  people 

THEMSELVES  HAVE  GOVERNMENTAL  FUNCTIONS,  Or  at  least 

in  which  provision  is  made  for  the  expression  of  their  will  ? 
Are  we  not  proud  of  our  record  in  history  as  a  pioneer  and 
a  model  of  constitutional  government  ? 

In  answer  to  this  it  may  confidently  be  asserted  that  what- 
ever be  our  present  method,  we  have  destroyed  no  liberties, 
we  have  taken  no  popular  constitutions  away.  We  found 
no  parliaments  and  have  destroyed  no  representative  as- 
semblies. Institutions  that  we  did  find  of  that  kind  we 
ignorantly  interfered  with  in  early  stages,  with  the  idea  that 
they  were  blocking  the  path  to  freedom  ;  but  they  were  only 
village  councils,  and  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  we 
should  not  now  make  every  endeavour  to  use  them  as  instru- 
ments of  government.  But  we  found  no  parliamentary 
institutions  at  all.  Nor,  in  the  second  place,  are  we  to  be 
blamed  for  not  having  immediately  set  about  creating  some 
of  these.  The  whole  teaching  of  history  is  against  paper- 
constitutions.     Even  Locke,  an  Englishman,  could  not,  even 


74  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

with  the  good  will  of  the  people,  devise  one  that  would  work 
for  an  English  colony— South  Carolina  ;  nor  had  the  French 
theorists  of  the  Revolution  any  better  success  ;  their  consti- 
tutions would  not  'march.'  The  growth  of  the  English 
Constitution  is  a  result  of  long  and  detailed  struggle,  and 
no  one  but  the  most  optimistic  of  doctrinaires  would  waste 
time  in  endeavouring  to  transplant  it  to  Asia.  When  we 
take  into  account  the  popular  sympathies  and  principles 
advocated  for  us  at  home  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  when  we 
remember  that  he  spent  his  official  life  in  Indian  affairs,  we 
may  fairly  say  that  in  his  book  on  Representative  Govern- 
ment we  have  not  only  a  defence  of  our  present  position  by 
a  thoroughly  Radical  politician,  but  a  warning  against  taking 
up  any  other.  At  the  same  time  there  is  an  aspect  of  the 
British  rule  in  India  not  to  be  summarily  disposed  of.  We 
found  no  constitutions  of  a  representative  kind,  but  it  is  not 
true  to  say  that  we  found  no  organized  governments  at  all. 
The  peninsula  was  full  of  States  governed  after  the  manner 
of  Orientals,  by  despotic  princes.  And  it  is  undoubtedly  an 
open  question  whether  we  have  sufficiently  employed  these 
native  governments  as  instruments  of  popular  well-being. 
The  methods  of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  Lord  Wellesley  in  the 
earlier  period  stand  contrasted  in  this  respect,  as  do  those 
of  Lord  William  Bentinck  and  Lord  Dalhousie  in  the  later. 
Lord  Dalhousie,  for  example,  decided  against  the  Native  rulers, 
and  annexed  several  States,  notably  the  Punjab,  believing 
that  the  princes  and  their  courts  were  obstacles  to  progress. 
Other  distinguished  administrators  objected  to  this  view  :  Sir 
Henry  Lawrence,  Resident  in  the  Punjab,  for  example,  offered 
to  resign  when  the  change  was  made.  And  a  review  of  the 
Governor-Generalship  of  Lord  Dalhousie  leads  some  men 
to  regard  him  as  one  of  our  most  enlightened  representatives, 
others  as  arbitrary  and  narrow-minded,  despising  established 
and  well-tried  agencies  for  good  such  as  cannot  possibly 
be  replaced  by  our  own  direct  action  as  rulers  in  every 
department  of  every  State.  Popular  government  we  could 
not  give,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  we  might  not  have  made 
the  Native  rulers  effective,  by  transforming  them  from  ir- 


Ch.v.]  European  Rule  in  Asia.  75 

responsible  despots  to  responsible  princes.  In  industrial 
organization  we  find  Sir  James  Caird,  the  eminent  agricul- 
turalist, at  the  close  of  his  report  to  the  British  public  on 
India  and  its  people l,  making  a  strong  appeal  that  we  should 
commit  to  each  province  the  responsibility  of  its  own  opera- 
tions, and  enlist  in  the  work  the  native  landowners,  officials, 
and  municipal  bodies.  We  shall  see  farther  on  that  in 
another  Oriental  country  the  Dutch  have  applied  this  method 
with  success  to  a  people  very  much  lower  in  civilization  and 
intelligence  than  most  of  the  peoples  of  India. 

V.  But  is  it  not  something  of  an  intrusion  for 
a  European  nation  to  undertake  the  control  of  a 
group  of  Asiatic  nations?  Do  not  the  ethnological 
differences  which  certainly  exist,  as  the  effect  of  past  centuries 
and  different  experiences,  render  our  attempt,  however  well 
meant,  artificial  to  a  degree  which  must  be  pernicious  and 
lead  to  disappointment  and  eventual  disaster  both  to  them 
and  to  ourselves  ? 

Our  reply  is  that  history  exhibits  the  unity  of  the  human 
race  as  having  an  influence  sufficiently  powerful  to  offer  some 
counteraction  to  the  differences  between  nations.  The 
generic  elements  of  our  nature  are  as  real  as  the  differentiae, 
and  it  is  upon  them  that  we  now  rely.  And  an  analysis  of 
these  differences  leads  us  to  think  that  we  have  here  a 
genuine  case  of  natural  adaptation  for  the  status  of  Tute- 
lage or  Education.  It  is  trifling  with  the  terms  natural 
and  artificial  to  speak  in  a  condemnatory  sense  of  a  school 
as  an  artificial  institution.  Man  is  natural  :  and  schools  for 
children  are  natural  organizations  for  bringing  the  generations, 
as  they  come  successively  into  being,  to  a  level  with  those 
which  are  successively  passing  away.  That  Asia  is  com- 
paratively in  childhood  in  intelligence,  though  not  in  years, 
and  is  susceptible  of  the  training  and  teaching  of  school,  is 
our  contention.  A  group  of  nations,  civilized  yet  unable 
to  withstand  a  few  determined  merchants  and  adventurers, 
Portuguese,   Dutch,  French,  and   English,   must   be   in   a 

1  India:  the  Land  and  the  People.     By  Sir  James  Caird,  1883. 


j6  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

condition  of  comparative  weakness  proceeding  either  from 
immaturity  or  from  senile  decay.  Our  presumption  is  that 
it  is  the  former,  and  that  education  is  the  remedy ;  and  we 
believe  that  differences  of  character,  far-reaching  as  they 
are,  do  not  alter  the  hearts  of  men,  but  that  our  common 
humanity  in  its  essence  is  there,  offering  a  solid  basis  for 
an  education  towards  a  progress  akin  to  ours,  but  rich  also 
with  variations  of  its  own.  That  the  life  of  long  centuries 
already  past  should  rather  compel  us  to  take  the  view  that 
the  Indian  nations  are  beyond  education,  being  weak  through 
decay  of  their  organic  mental  and  bodily  structure,  is  another 
view  which  may  be  held,  and  used  for  the  conclusion  that 
they  ought  to  be  left  to  govern  themselves.  These  alterna- 
tives must  here  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  our  readers. 

There  is  one  remarkable  sign  that  our  rule  in  India  is  not 
an  interfering  despotism  of  a  kind  that  must  be  opposed  by 
all  defenders  of  the  liberty  of  peoples.  One  of  the  marks 
of  tyranny  is  that  it  inflicts  evil,  not  only  on  the  victims,  but 
on  the  tyrant  himself,  who  is  spoken  of  by  poets  as  really 
the  most  to  be  pitied  of  all.  Now  a  mark  of  the  true 
schoolmaster  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  this  :  by  the  exercise 
of  his  craft  he  is  himself  taught  and  disciplined.  Which 
of  these  is  true  in  our  case  ?  We  can  refer  to  the  writings 
of  Mill,  the  lectures  of  Max  Miiller,  and  the  works  of  Sir 
Henry  Maine,  for  some  illustrations  of  the  effect  upon 
ourselves  of  our  being  in  India.  There  are  indications  within 
everyone's  reach,  that  the  discharge  of  this  great  responsibility 
is  enlightening  the  conscience  and  widening  the  sympathies 
of  Englishmen,  and  so  preparing  for  Asiatic  peoples  a  union 
with  the  European  divisions  of  the  race. 

VI.  But  is  not  great  prejudice  widely  felt  in 
India,  which  is  in  itself  reasonable  and  whole- 
some? 

It  is.  A  Mohammedan  student  from  India  when  being 
guided  through  a  book  so  considerate  and  liberal  as  Mill  on 
Representative  Government  was  found  to  be  very  indignant 
over  many  passages,  and  his  copy  was  scored  and  dashed  with 
notes  of  ejaculation   and  interrogation,  with  'What  about 


Ch.v.]  Nature  Prejudices.  77 

so  and  so  ? '  '  Why  not  apply  this  to  India  ?'  and  so  on.  And 
every  one  is  conscious  that  our  presence  in  India  is  to  some 
extent  resented.  But  that  it  is  so  in  the  main,  or  largely, 
there  is  no  evidence.  The  actual  voices  heard  are  not  those 
of  the  masses  of  the  Indian  peoples.  The  Parsees,  for  example, 
who  impress  us  as  people  whom  it  is  rather  hard  to  keep 
in  a  political  position  subordinate  to  the  Suffolk  labourer 
or  the  Irish  cottier,  are  themselves  almost  foreigners 
— 'colonists'  in  fact — and  would  have  little  place  in  any 
popular  government  in  India.  The  Bengalese  peasantry, 
on  the  other  hand,  never  had  a  voice  in  their  own  govern- 
ment, and  would  be  surprised  beyond  measure  at  being 
asked  to  look  beyond  their  village  interests.  The  great 
Tamil-speaking  peoples  make  no  complaint.  The  voices 
heard  are  those  of  dispossessed  rulers,  not  of  the  masses  of  the 
ruled.  The  Mohammedan  aristocracies  desire  a  return  to 
power,  of  course.  But  we  remember  that  the  failures  and 
blunders  and  disloyalties  of  Stuarts  and  Bourbons  did  not 
prevent  them  from  finding  in  their  exile  voices  lifted  and 
swords  drawn  for  their  return  to  power  and  privilege  :  it 
would  indeed  be  against  nature  for  privileged  classes  to 
be  philosophically  acquiescent  in  their  own  displacement 
simply  because  increase  of  prosperity  in  the  way  of  peace 
and  industry  had  followed  their  ejection  as  rulers  of  the 
people.  Again,  the  academically  trained  graduates  of 
Calcutta,  Madras,  Bombay,  Lahore  and  Allahabad,  natu- 
rally feel  themselves  competent  for  a  share  in  government, 
and  lack  neither  voices  nor  pens  for  the  statement  of  their 
ambitions.  Their  appeals  must  be  heard,  and  indeed  are 
being  heard  :  from  such  men  a  civil  service  and  a  magistracy 
are  being  organized  ;  but  slowly  and  by  steps.  This  is  as  it 
should  be,  and  is  what  has  been  formally  promised  ;  although 
it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  this  is  not  exactly  a  reform 
demanded  by  the  people  at  large.  'The  Native,'  says  a 
German  authority,  Dr.  Geffcken,  '  invariably  prefers  to  take 
his  law  from  an  English  magistrate,  because  he  implicitly 
relies  on  English  impartiality.'  The  infusion  of  Native 
elements  into  the  political  and  judicial  system  without  injury 


78  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.  v. 

to  the  English  element  is  the  task  before  all  who  would  be 
considered  statesmen  in  their  treatment  of  India. 

VII.     IS   NOT  OUR   RECORD  STAINED? 

Undoubtedly.  Deeds  of  discredit  and  disgrace  are  on  the 
pages  of  our  Indian  record.  The  proceedings  of  Clive  and 
Hastings  receive  at  the  hands  of  foreign  historians  a  con- 
demnatory treatment  which  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  set  aside 
by  attributing  it  to  national  envy  or  jealousy,  and  it  is  useless 
for  us  to  attempt  to  take  high  ground  on  those  records. 
Many  deeds  done  in  the  name  of  the  great  Company,  and 
with  the  power  of  England  supporting  the  doers,  are  to  be 
recorded  with  sorrow  and  shame.  Annexations  carried  out  with 
subtilty l,  or  with  open  violence,  spoliations  unjustifiable  and 
not  to  be  forgotten,  have  been  part  of  public  policy.  And  of 
greater  mischievousness  still  are  harshness  and  inconsider- 
ateness  on  the  part  of  Anglo- Indians  to  Natives  in  private 
life,  amounting  to  unpardonable  levity  and  even  to  actual 
disregard  of  common  politeness  and  kindly  humanity.  Even 
where  no  positive  causes  of  alienation  can  be  alleged, 
distance  as  between  mind  and  mind  still  operates  terribly 
to  prevent  wholesome  relations.  Sir  James  Caird  has  to  note 
that  even  as  late  as  in  1883,  'Though  the  people  have  for 
six  generations  known  no  other  rulers,  we  are  still  strangers 
among  them.  Our  representatives  come  and  go,  now  faster 
than  ever,  and  we  and  they  look  on  each  other  with  distrust.' 
Of  the  public  wrongs  we  may  fairly  claim  that  they  sprang 
from  one  or  other  of  two  causes :  either,  because  for  at  least 
fifty  years  the  existence  of  the  Company  gave  a  com?nercial 
character  to  our  rule,  and  the  idea  of  profits  and  dividends 
was  never  wholly  absent  from  the  minds  of  our  Indian 
administrators,  if  not  of  the  Governor- Generals  themselves,  at 

1  For  example,  the  refusal  by  Lord  Dalhousie  to  continue  the 
semi-independence  of  a  Native  State  when  the  ruler  had  no  direct 
heir,  by  not  allowing  him  to  adopt  an  heir  in  the  usual  Hindu  way, 
could  only  proceed  from  a  plan  in  which  Native  opinion  was  counted 
as  of  little  value,  and  hardly  gave  ground  for  any  great  admiration 
for  straightforward  equity  on  our  part.  That  the  annexation  of 
Sinde  in  1843,  as  described  by  a  Director  of  the  Company,  is 
painful  reading,  can  hardly  be  seriously  denied. 


Ch.  v.]  Summary  of  Bene/its.  79 

least  of  the  rank  and  file  of  officials :  or  else,  because  of  the 
disposition  at  one  time  to  proceed  upon  the  method  0/ 
dealing  Orientally  with  Orientals ;  assimilating  downwards, 
that  is  to  say,  instead  of  upwards.  But  the  gradual  diminu- 
tion of  the  Company's  share  in  the  administration  diminished 
the  former  cause  of  evil,  and  the  increase  of  intercourse 
with  India  of  Englishmen,  other  than  Government  officials 
and  officers  of  the  army,  and  of  Natives  with  England,  is 
reducing  the  latter.  And  since  the  steam  and  telegraph 
services  have  brought  the  Government  in  India  effectively 
into  contact  with  the  Indian  Department  at  home,  and 
therefore  with  Parliament  and  the  constituencies,  public 
policy  will  proceed  upon  principles  at  least  as  high  as 
Englishmen,  who,  after  all,  are  mortals  not  angels,  are  guided 
by  at  home.  Mill's  defence  of  the  Company  is  plainly  due 
to  his  own  successful  connexion  with  an  honourable  service  : 
the  abolition  has  certainly  modified  in  an  upward  direction 
the  idea  of  the  relationship  between  India  and  ourselves. 
If  the  roll  of  British  statesmen  in  India  contains  some  names 
of  dubious  reputation,  nothing  but  national  pride  is  felt  when 
we  pass  down  the  roll  and  read  the  blameless  names  of 
such  high-souled  rulers  as  Bentinck,  Elphinstone,  Macaulay, 
Lawrence,  Hobart,  Mayo. 

Summary  of  Benefits. 

As  material  for  thought  and  reflection  on  this  great  problem 
of  cosmopolitan  history,  a  brief  summary  may  be  given  of 
the  benefits  accruing,  at  this  end  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
to  the  peoples  of  India  from  British  rule. 

(i)  Public  Peace.  The  Pax  Britannica  effects  for  India 
what  the  Pax  Roniana  did  for  the  peoples  round  the 
Mediterranean  basin  at  the  close  of  the  '  Classic '  period  of 
history.     The  invasions  from  the  North- West  \  the  contests 

1  The  scientific  frontier  problem  is  of  primary  importance ;  but, 
unfortunately,  there  are  divided  opinions  upon  it  at  present.  The 
mountain  chain  which  at  first  might  be  thought  a  rampart  has 
never  proved  to  be  so ;  it  can  be  forced  in  too  many  places :  and 
important  outposts  beyond  it  seem  indispensable ;  e.  g.  Quetta  and 


So  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

of  rival  dynasties  and  confederacies,  the  invasions  from  the 
sea  by  Portuguese,  Dutch,  and  French,  have  all  ceased :  by 
the  establishment  of  one  invader  there  is  rest  from  all  others. 
The  fear  of  one — again  on  the  open  North-West — Russia,  is 
still  a  strong  determinant  of  warlike  policy  ;  from  all  others 
without,  and,  still  more  important  for  India,  from  all  within, 
there  is — Peace. 

(ii)  Security  of  Life  and  Liberty  to  private  per- 
sons such  as  was  never  known  before  in  Oriental  nations, 
except  possibly  in  China  and  Japan,  certainly  never  in  India. 
Every  man  can  now  follow  his  trade,  and  conduct  his  life 
according  to  his  own  ideas  and  the  customs  of  his  family 
and  nation. 

(iii)  Security  of  Property.  Every  man  now  looks 
with  confidence  to  reaping  the  fruits  of  his  labour,  according 
to  the  custom  of  his  trade  and  locality,  the  operation  of  the 
seasons,  and  the  working  of  commercial  markets. 

These  three  securities  are  the  foundation-stones  of  social 
life  ;  and  Englishmen  have  been  privileged,  like  architects 
restoring  a  grand  cathedral  by  insertion  of  new  foundations, 
to  give  new  strength  to  the  structure  of  Indian  society. 

(iv)  The  Organization  of  Industry  and  Trade  by 
means  of  English  capital  and  English  science.  The  great 
value  of  this  assistance  becomes  manifest  when  we  remember 
that  two  English  public  men  who  were  always  deeply 
interested  in  India,  John  Bright  and  Henry  Fawcett,  in- 
cessantly pleaded  for  India  as  a  poor  country.  They  con- 
sidered it  proved  that  the  masses  of  India  had  only  just  a 
bare  margin  of  living.  And,  indeed,  the  India  Office  estimated 
the  whole  annual  produce  of  Indian  industrial  effort  as  about 
one-twentieth  of  that  of  the  United  Kingdom.  To  this 
country,  where  labour  was  already  abundant,  a  stream  of 
capital  has  flowed  under  the  flag  of  England.  It  has  been 
applied  to  supplying  India  with  a  main  arterial  system  of 

Candahar.  If  the  fear  of  Russia  adds  three  millions  a  year  to  the 
expense  of  government  in  India,  as  is  said,  no  trifling  on  this  point  is 
permissible.  Dr.  Geffcken  strongly  advises  the  maintenance  of  the 
advance-posts. 


Ch.v.j  Summary  of  Benefits.  81 

railways,  and  to  developing  her  own  irrigation  machinery.  By 
direct  Government  loans,  or  by  means  of  English  companies 
backed  by  Government,  the  savings  of  Englishmen  are 
industrially  developing  Indian  provinces.  The  widows  of 
British  officers,  clergy,  merchants,  and  tradesmen,  receive  their 
dividends  from  their  investments  unconscious  of  their  co- 
operation in  industry  with  the  rice-growing  peasants  of  Bengal 
and  Madras.  The  amount  of  English  capital  now  employed 
in  India  cannot  be  much  less  than  200  millions  sterling,  and 
after  taking  the  toll  of  interest  to  the  shareholders  in  Britain 
a  substantial  net  return  is  in  the  hands  of  Indian  peoples 
already,  and  the  mechanism  of  an  improved  industrial  system, 
with  still  greater  advantages  in  store,  is  being  constructed  at 
the  same  time  l.  The  point  of  a  very  important  paper  by  Sir 
William  Hunter2  is  that  a  revolution  has  taken  place  which 
is  bringing  India  well  within  the  central  circle  of  commercial 
nations,  and  he  adds  that  '  India,  having  had  conquering 
viceroys  and  consolidating  viceroys,  is  now  waiting  for  a 
commercial  viceroy,  to  deal  with  a  whole  series  of  economic 
questions  of  the  first  magnitude.'  Her  development  in  export- 
ing power,  from  69  million  tens  of  rupees  in  1879,  to  98  mil- 
lions in  1888,  has  meant  also  development  of  importing 
capacity  from  51  millions  in  1879, t0  8°  millions  in  18883.   The 

1  It  is  alleged  by  Native  critics  that  it  is  England  alone  that  reaps 
the  benefits  of  this.  She  finds  employment  for  spare  capital  and  for 
many  of  her  sons  in  these  enterprises,  where  they  occupy  the  chief 
posts  of  profit  and  credit.  But  the  objection  is  analogous  to  that  of 
those  advocates  of  the  Labour-interest  at  home  who  are  unable  to 
discriminate  between  Labour  unassisted  and  Labour  assisted  by 
Capital  and  directed  by  organizing  talent.  They  do  not  see  that  by 
the  latter  method  Labour  receives  more  net  reward,  after  all  that 
Capital  has  appropriated  is  deducted  from  the  gross  produce,  than  it 
could  possibly  receive  without  the  assistance  of  Capital. 

2  Royal  Colonial  Institute  Proceedings,  vol.  xix. 

3  As  the  value  of  the  rupee  has  changed,  the  actual  development 
is  best  seen  in  comparing  some  quantities  :  e.g.,  from  1879  *°  J8%9 
import  of  woollen  piece-goods  increased  from  7  million  yards  to 
1 1  millions ;  of  kerosine  oil  from  6  million  gallons  to  38  millions ; 
export  of  tea  from  38  million  lbs.  to  99  millions ;  of  wheat  from 
2  million  cwt.  to  1 7  millions ;  of  jute  cloth  from  5  million  yards  to 
15  millions. 


82  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

change  has  also  carried  with  it  the  beginning  of  a  revolution 
in  the  relative  positions  of  agriculture  and  manufacture  in 
India.  The  new  methods  of  manufacture  have  proved  well 
adapted  to  some  of  her  cities  with  their  teeming  populations. 
At  first  the  change  was  not  to  their  advantage.  English 
machine-goods  came  in,  and  native  products  could  not  hold 
their  own ;  and  at  the  same  time  Indian  food  and  raw 
material  were  more  easily  carried  to  the  ports  by  the  new 
railway  system,  and  the  city  populations  in  India  had  to 
bear  a  rise  of  prices.  But  from  the  rise  of  prices  producers 
of  agricultural  commodities  reaped  great  benefit ;  and  when 
the  town-populations  began  themselves  to  use  machinery 
and  to  find  that  the  railways  carried  their  products  cheaply 
to  the  markets,  their  turn,  too,  had  come.  How  far  the 
substitution  of  factory-work  for  hand-work  need  cause 
deterioration  in  the  artistic  qualities  of  Indian  work  can 
hardly  be  determined  :  the  change  is  inevitable,  and  the 
really  helpful  course  is  not  idle  lamentation,  but  bringing  art 
to  bear  on  the  new  methods.  For  India  the  full  entrance 
into  the  commercial  circle  of  nations  is  a  change  of  the  first 
magnitude  already,  and  still  greater  effects  have  to  come. 

(v)  European  Science,  Literature,  and  Religion. 

Soon  after  we  took  up  our  place  in  India  there  was  a 
period  of  considerable  hesitation.  Our  Indian  officials  and 
our  Anglo-Indian  merchants  assumed  for  a  time  the  re- 
sponsibility of  closing  the  doors  of  India  to  European 
civilization.  This  was  not  altogether  from  commercial 
motives,  but  was,  in  some  minds  at  least,  based  on  a  con- 
viction that  any  change  was  neither  necessary  nor  desirable. 
On  one  hand,  Englishmen  were  not  satisfied  with  their  own 
moral  and  religious  condition  at  the  close  of  last  century  and 
in  the  early  years  of  this.  At  a  time  when  the  poor  of  Great 
Britain  were  uneducated,  and  when  religious  zeal  was  absent 
from  the  classes  who  supplied  the  officials,  the  officers  of  the 
army,  and  the  merchants,  there  was  no  strong  feeling  that  we 
had  anything  to  teach  others.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  were  some  minds  really  affected  with  admiration  for 
the  treasures  of  philosophy  and  poetry  and  religious  aspira- 


Ch.v.]  Summary  of  Benefits.  83 

tion  which  the  study  of  Indian  literatures  was  disclosing. 
'The  new  and  mysterious  world  of  Sanscrit  learning  was 
revealing  itself  to  those  first  generations  of  Anglo-Indians. 
They  were  under  the  charm  of  a  remote  philosophy 
and  a  fantastic  history.  They  were,  as  it  was  said, 
Brahmanized,  and  would  not  hear  of  admitting  into  their 
enchanted  Oriental  enclosure  either  the  Christianity  or  any 
of  the  learning  of  the  West  V 

The  necessity  for  the  renewal  of  the  Company's  charter  in 
1 8 1 3  was  the  opportunity  for  the  critical  struggle.  The  enthu- 
siasm of  the  Evangelical  Christians  working  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  our  Western  Empire  proved  sufficient  also  to  carry 
their  principles  to  victory  in  the  East.  '  I  have  long  been  look- 
ing forward  to  the  period  of  the  renewal  of  the  East  India 
Company's  charter,'  William  Wilberforce  wrote  to  a  friend, 
'as  to  a  great  era  when  I  hoped  that  it  would  please  God  to 
enable  the  friends  of  Christianity  to  wipe  away  what  I  have 
long  thought,  next  to  the  slave  trade,  the  foulest  blot  on  the 
moral  character  of  our  countrymen,  the  suffering  of  our 
fellow-subjects  in  the  East  Indies  to  remain,  without  any 
effort  on  our  part  to  enlighten  them  and  reform  them,  under 
the  grossest,  the  darkest,  the  most  depraving  system  of 
superstition  that  almost  ever  existed  on  earth.'  These  were 
strong  words,  and  expressed  convictions  based  on  imperfect 
information,  no  doubt ;  but  Wilberforce  was  thinking  of  the 
practices  reported,  while  the  Anglo- Indians  were  thinking  of 
the  poetry  and  philosophy.  Throughout  the  churches  the 
result  of  the  final  division  in  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the 
proposal  to  insert  in  the  charter  a  clause  allowing  mission- 
aries free  scope,  was  awaited  with  the  greatest  anxiety. 
Wilberforce  wrote,  *  I  heard  afterwards  that  many  good 
men  were  praying  for  us  all  night.'  The  clause  was  carried 
and  became  law,  and  from  that  time  India  was  made 
accessible  to  the  missionaries  of  every  Christian  church. 

Another   crisis   is    associated   with   the    name   of  Lord 

Macaulay,    himself    the    son    of    a    leading    Evangelical 

Churchman  :    he  determined  that  what  education  was  to 

1  Professor  Seeley,  Expansion  of  England,  p.  251. 

G  2 


84  The  English  in  India.  [Ch.v. 

be  given  should  be  given  in  the  English  language,  and 
should  be  of  English  character.  For  a  long  time  this 
sufficed  ;  a  theory  of  '  filtering '  was  in  vogue ;  a  small 
learned  class  was  to  study,  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  and 
its  influence  was  to  be  left  to  work  downwards.  In  1854 
the  principle  of  popular  education  was  asserted ;  and  since 
then,  while  higher  education  is  almost  self-supporting,  the 
chief  duty  of  Government  is  considered  to  be  '  the  spreading 
of  sound  elementary  education  among  the  masses  of  the 
people.'  We  must  not  forget  that  a  similar  struggle  has 
been  waged  for  popular  education  in  England,  and  with  a 
similar  issue  ;  so  that,  after  all,  our  policy  in  India  has  kept 
pace  with  our  own  policy  at  home. 

No  small  part  of  the  work  of  education  has  been  dis- 
charged by  the  Missionaries,  the  Presbyterian  church 
being  honourably  distinguished  for  its  enterprise  in  this 
direction.  On  the  religious  work  of  the  missionary  societies 
we  have  the  following  official  Government  report  :  ■  No 
mere  statistical  statement  can  give  a  correct  idea  of 
all  that  the  missionaries  have  accomplished.  The  moral 
value  of  what  they  preach  is  acknowledged  by  hun- 
dreds who  do  not  join  them.  Their  doctrinal  system  has 
given  the  people  new  ideas,  not  only  on  purely  religious 
questions,  but  upon  the  nature  and  existence  of  evil,  the 
obligatory  character  of  the  law,  and  the  motives  which 
should  govern  and  direct  human  life.  The  Indian  Govern- 
ment cannot  avoid  expressing  how  much  it  owes  to  the 
benevolent  exertions  of  those  six  hundred  missionaries, 
whose  blameless  lives  and  self-denying  labours  have  inspired 
with  a  new  vital  force  the  great  communities  living  under 
British  rule.'  The  lives  of  Schwartz,  Carey,  Martyn,  Heber, 
and  Duff,  and  of  such  lay  supporters  of  missions  as  Outram, 
Edwardes,  and  Havelock,  are  imperishable  monuments 
of  high  Christian  character  and  energy  manifested  plainly 
among  the  Brahmans  and  Mohammedans  of  Hindostan. 

In  concluding  these  broad  reflections,  is  it  a  mere  fancy 
to  suggest  that  in  India  under  British  rule  we  have  in  partial 
realization  Plato's  conception  of  a  Good  State  ?  and  that, 


Ch.  v.]  Summary  of  Benefits.  85 

without  his  extremes  ?  We  have  (a)  the  Governing  Class, 
and  we  trust  that  we  may  say  that  they  are  free  from 
private  interest,  and  that  they  are  Wise  ;  we  have  (b)  THE 
Auxiliaries  in  the  shape  of  a  trained  magistracy,  a  disci- 
plined army  of  Englishmen  and  Natives,  and  a  well-organized 
civil  service  under  Civil  Servants  of  the  first  rank,  who, 
we  hope,  are  entitled  to  be  reckoned  as  possessing  their 
proper  virtue,  Courage  in  the  discharge  of  their  functions ; 
we  have  (c)  THE  MASSES  OF  THE  people,  Temperate  in  the 
sense  of  pursuing  in  orderly  manner  their  industrial  functions  ; 
and  id)  all  three  working  in  that  combined  harmony  which 
Plato  called  Justice.  Only,  Plato  had  to  pass  on  to  assume 
that  such  a  State,  if  ever  existent,  would  not  be  stable,  but 
would  be  presently  corrupted  ;  we  are  sanguine  enough,  for 
the  present  at  least,  to  believe  that  the  virtues  of  the  Indian 
State  are  preparing  for  consolidation  and  progress. 


86 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension. 

In  1783  the  colonial  empire  of  England  underwent  a 
violent  disruption,  which  on  the  face  of  it  seemed  to  show 
that  the  expansion  of  Europe  was  not  to  proceed  much 
longer  by  way  of  extension  of  imperial  dominions.  It  cer- 
tainly appeared  to  indicate  that  however  successful  a  nation 
might  be  in  raising  up  daughter-communities,  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  political  ties  would  be  long  maintained  ;  and  if 
statesmen  laid  great  stress  on  the  maintenance  of  such  ties 
as  essential  to  the  object  for  which  colonization  was  entered 
upon,  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  abandon  imperial 
and  colonial  ambitions.  But  this  view  did  not  attract  much 
attention  in  Great  Britain.  The  impelling  power  of  commerce 
was  in  operation,  and  on  our  imperial  mission  we  proceeded 
with  marvellous  success.  In  India,  as  we  have  seen,  we 
never  paused  until  some  three-quarters  of  a  century  afterwards 
we  became  undisputed  rulers  of  the  whole  peninsula.  And  in 
three  other  directions  our  work  went  on,  either  by  filling  up 
and  developing  territories  already  in  occupation,  or  by  adding 
new  ones  from  time  to  time.  The  four  chief  lines  of  recon- 
struction and  fresh  development  form  the  topic  of  this 
chapter;  namely,  in  the  West  Indies,  in  Australia,  in  Canada, 
and  in  Africa. 

§  1.  The  West  Indies. 

Numbers  are  not  everything,  but  they  do  count,  and  it  is 
at  first  almost  with  a  sense  of  easy  irresponsibility  and  relaxa- 
tion of  attention  that  we  turn  from  the  vast  and  intricate 
problems  of  India  to  the  history  of  our  share  of  the  group 


88 


Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.        [Ch.  VI. 


Ch.  vi.]  The  West  Indies.  89 

of  islands  in  the  Caribbean  Sea.  We  have  been  dealing 
with  people  in  such  millions  that  we  feel  comparatively 
unmoved  when  considering  the  million  and  a  quarter  of  our 
fellow-subjects  there,  a  population  less  than  one-fiftieth  of 
that  under  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal  alone,  about 
half  of  that  of  the  single  island  of  Ceylon.  But  this  group 
of  colonies,  although  on  so  small  a  scale,  possesses  a  history 
which  has  many  attractions  and  is  very  instructive.  Three 
features  of  interest  can  easily  be  perceived  : — 

(a)  These  islands  are  the  connecting  link  between  our 
colonization  and  the  romantic  history  of  Spanish  discovery 
and  colonization.  In  them  we  made  our  first  effort  after 
tropical  or  sub-tropical  colonization  in  competition  with 
Spain.  v 

(b)  They  were  for  a  time  the  centre  of  our  colonial  interest. 
After  the  shock  of  the  separation  of  our  thirteen  colonies, 
although  we  still  had  Canada,  we  were  despoiled  of  our 
possessions  as  sources  of  wealth  under  our  own  trade-regu- 
lation, retaining  only  these  fiercely-contested  sugar-islands. 
The  securing  of  them  by  Rodney's  great  victory  was  to  us  the 
great  consolation  of  the  war  which  ended  in  1783.  And  they 
rapidly  became  a  source  of  constant  and  increasing  wealth. 
At  the  close  of  last  century  the  West  Indian  interest  in  the  city 
of  London  and  in  Bristol  was  one  of  the  chief  elements  in 
politics  as  well  as  in  commerce.  To  have  a  plantation  in 
Jamaica  was  to  be  an  object  of  envy  ;  it  was  much  the  same 
as  being  an  Indian  '  Nabob.' 

But  (c)  of  more  permanent  interest  still,  it  has  been  in 
the  field  of  our  West  Indian  colonization  that  the  great 
battle  of  Slavery  has  been  fought  and  won — a  moral  contest 
of  singular  interest  and  singular  significance :  the  protest 
of  modern  ideas  of  morality  against  classical  and  mediaeval 
carried  to  an  issue  that  presently  involved,  not  only  England, 
but  Europe,  and  eventually  the  whole  world  of  nations.  The 
chief  heroes  of  West  Indian  history  are  men  who  never  saw 
the  islands,  but  who  took  up  the  cause  of  human  liberty  as 
there  outraged,  and  thus  initiated  the  abolition  for  all  peoples 
of  the  status  of  serfdom  and  chattelage. 


9o 


Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension. 


[Ch.VI. 


Ch.vi.]  History  of  our  West  Indies.  91 


History  of  our  "West  Indies. 

We  soon  secured  a  nominal  footing  in  the  Caribbean  Archi- 
pelago, appropriating  Barbados  in  1605,  when  some  English- 
men touched  at  the  island  and  carved  on  a  tree  the  inscrip- 
tion, 'James,  King  of  England,  and  of  this  island.'  The 
occupation  of  the  island  began  in  1625,  and  settlers  soon 
proceeded  there  in  considerable  numbers,  cultivating  tobacco, 
indigo,  cotton,  and  a  certain  plant  from  which  they  brewed 
a  refreshing  drink,  ignorant  then  of  its  future  as  the 
source  of  great  good  fortune  for  that  part  of  the  world — the 
sugar-cane.  It  was  not  until  1640  that  a  Dutchman  from 
Brazil  taught  the  Barbadians  the  secret  of  boiling  the  juice  of 
the  fully  ripened  cane.  But  the  avidity  with  which  the  new 
industry  was  taken  up  soon  made  up  for  any  lost  time.  In 
twenty  years  the  whole  of  the  leeward  coast  was  covered 
with  plantations,  and  the  little  island — about  the  same  size  as 
the  Isle  of  Wight— had  50,000  settlers.  Men  of  some  wealth 
left  England  on  account  of  the  civil  wars,  and  a  constitutional 
government  under  a  charter  was  established.  The  island 
was  called  '  Little  England,'  and  Mr.  Payne  calls  the  Barba- 
dians '  the  earliest  type  of  the  true  English  colonists,'  and  says 
that  before  the  Act  of  Navigation  restricted  its  trade  to  the 
mother-country,  and  Jamaica  had  come  into  competition, 
Barbados  was  '  the  most  populous,  rich,  and  industrious  spot 
on  the  earth.'  Many  of  Cromwell's  prisoners  were  sent  out 
there  as  slave-labourers,  and  the  colony  early  took  part  in  the 
employment  of  West  African  negro-slaves  as  well.  Jamaica  was 
taken  from  the  Spaniards  in  1655  on  the  failure  of  an  expedi- 
tion against  St.  Domingo.  Settlements  were  made  in  St.  Kitts 
and  the  Bahamas,  while  the  Spanish  kept  Cuba,  most  of  St. 
Domingo,  and  Porto  Rico ;  the  French  were  occupying 
Martinique  and  Guadeloupe  and  part  of  St.  Domingo,  the 
Dutch  St.  Eustatius  and  Curacao,  and  the  Danes  St.  Thomas 
and  the  Virgin  Islands.  In  the  eighteenth  century  wars  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  taking  and  retaking  of  the  smaller  islands 
between  the  British,  French,  and  Spanish,  but  the  final 
war   ended   in   our    being    secured    in  the    possession    of 


92  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

Dominica,  St.  Lucia,  Antigua,  St.  Vincent,  Tobago,  and 
Trinidad,  besides  some  smaller  islands.  At  the  close  of  that 
century  we  took  part  of  Guiana  from  Holland,  and  of  that 
portion — usually  included  under  the  term  'West  Indies' 
— we  have  made  the  most  prosperous  of  all  our  posses- 
sions in  that  quarter  of  the  world.  By  the  Treaties  of  Ver- 
sailles we  secured  a  place  for  our  mahogany- cutters  in  Central 
America  (Honduras),  and  have  since  made  it  into  a  regular 
colony,  though  a  very  small  one.  The  most  important 
members  of  the  group  now  are  Jamaica,  Trinidad,  British 
Guiana,  and  Barbados,  and  their  development  has  until 
recently  been  bound  up  with  the  Sugar-industry.  Each  of 
these  colonies  has  some  points  of  peculiar  interest,  but  our 
object  will  be  adequately  gained  by  noticing  some  of  the 
chief  points  of  the  history  of  Jamaica. 

Jamaica. 

This  typical  English  plantation-colony  when  taken  over 
by  us  in  1655  offered  us  quite  an  open  field,  for  the  Spanish 
cruelties  had  cleared  it  of  its  native  inhabitants.  We  found  no 
one  except  some  negro  slaves,  who  ran  away  to  the  moun- 
tains when  the  Spaniards  were  ousted,  and  gave  the  new- 
comers trouble  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  being  known 
as  'Maroons,'  often  furnishing  a  grim  kind  of  sport  to  the 
planters  when  their  thefts  and  murders  became  intolerable, 
and  regular  '  hunts  '  were  set  on  foot.  The  sugar-cane  was 
soon  introduced,  as  Barbados  had  shown  how  congenial  a 
soil  these  islands  offered,  and  sugar,  molasses,  and  rum 
became  the  staples  of  the  island.  The  trade  was  limited  by 
law,  but  as  the  markets  included  both  Great  Britain  and  the 
American  colonies  the  restriction  was  not  much  felt,  as  France 
and  other  European  markets  were  at  that  time  being  supplied 
from  their  own  sugar  colonies.  By  means  of  our  factories  in 
West  Africa  a  continuous  supply  of  negro  slaves  was  secured, 
and  the  large-scale  plantation  system  was  in  full  operation, 
Jamaican  prosperity  reaching  a  height  which  is  surpris- 
ing until  its  causes  are  examined  ;  incomes  of  ,£75,000,  and 
even  ^100,000,  a  year,  from  single  estates  being  known,  at  a 


Ch.  vi.]  Jamaica.  93 

time  when  probably  none  of  the  landed  nobility  or  gentry  of 
England  had  revenues  anything  like  so  large.  So  impor- 
tant an  element  in  British  commerce  was  the  West  Indian 
trade  that  it  is  recorded  that  Burke  desisted  from  some 
plans  which  he  was  forming  for  the  mitigation  and  eventually 
the  abolition  of  the  trade,  because  he  perceived  that  the  West 
Indian  merchants  could  get  up  an  opposition  that  would 
ruin  the  Whig  party  if  it  ventured  to  follow  him.  Gradually, 
however,  the  situation  was  examined,  and  the  more  it  was 
considered  the  less  it  was  liked  by  those  who  had  no  private 
complications  with  the  wealth  it  produced.  Some  men 
of  high  character  and  indomitable  energy  made  up  their 
minds  that  Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade  were  abominable,  and 
after  fifty  years  of  agitation  they  procured  their  abolition. 
The  Trade  was  abolished  first  (1807)  :  the  institution 
itself  not  until  1833.  But,  important  though  this  change 
was  in  its  effect  upon  Jamaican  industry,  it  is  not  ac- 
curate to  speak  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  the  only 
cause  of  the  rapid  decline  of  value  in  Jamaican  estates; 
nor  indeed  is  it  certain  that  it  was  the  chief  cause.  There 
are  facts  which  show  that  the  decay  had  really  begun  be- 
fore slavery  terminated.  The  other  cause  in  operation  was 
the  gradual  breakdown  of  Jamaican  and  Barbadian  monopoly 
of  the  British  sugar  market.  This  came  about  partly  by  the 
admission  of  fresh  competitors  within  the  charmed  circle  of 
privilege.  Trinidad  and  Guiana  became  British  territory, 
and  so  had  access  to  Bristol  and  London,  in  1798  ;  Mauri- 
tius, taken  in  18 10,  was  admitted  on  the  same  terms  as 
the  West  Indies  in  1825  ;  and  Ceylon  in  1836.  As  hitherto 
these  countries  had  been  foreign,  they  had  paid  a  duty  of 
three  guineas  a  hundredweight,  while  Jamaica  paid  about 
twenty-five  shillings,  they  now  entered  for  the  first  time  as 
competitors  on  equal  terms.  Jamaica  and  the  older  island 
were  placed  at  a  peculiar  disadvantage  by  this.  Trinidad 
and  Guiana  were  almost  untouched ;  they  abounded  in 
fine  virgin  soil,  and  both  the  sugar-cane  itself  and  the 
method  of  slave  labour  were  well  adapted  for  yielding 
immense    returns  to   early  outlays  on  unexhausted    land. 


94  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

In  Jamaica  the  wasteful  character  of  slave  labour  had 
gradually  exhausted  much  soil,  so  that  Jamaica  had 
naturally  passed  her  zenith.  But  in  1846  there  was  a  com- 
plete revolution.  When  Lord  John  Russell  effected  the 
complete  equalization  of  the  sugar  duties,  the  rich  sugar 
lands  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  Brazil,  a  hundred  times  as 
extensive  as  Jamaica,  came  into  competition,  and  the  heyday 
passed  completely  away.  The  equitableness  of  this  sudden 
equalization  is  a  question  of  great  interest.  On  the  one  side 
Free  Trade  required  it ;  but  on  the  other,  the  planters  of 
Jamaica  and  the  abolitionists  of  slavery  were  led  to  join  hands 
in  protesting  strongly  together  against  it,  for  it  placed  the 
slave-grown  sugar  of  Cuba  and  Brazil  on  a  level  with  the 
free-labour  sugar  of  our  own  colonies.  Freedom's  name  was 
invoked  on  both  sides — freedom  of  trade  on  the  one,  and 
freedom  of  labour  on  the  other.  As  our  own  colonies  were 
still  suffering  from  the  dislocation  of  their  labour-organization 
it  was  hardly  considerate  of  the  mother-country  to  decline 
to  give  them  a  little  more  breathing  time.  But  freedom  of 
trade  was  the  moving  principle  of  that  day ;  and  it  bore 
all  along  with  it,  so  far  as  British  policy  was  concerned. 

The  revolution  in  its  labour  system  and  the  loss  of  its 
monopoly  might  have  sufficed  to  ruin  the  prosperity  of 
Jamaica  ;  but  it  was  to  be  exposed  to  a  third  attack.  It  was 
discovered  that  sugar  could  be  profitably  extracted  from  beet- 
root, a  plant  which  Europe  could  grow  for  itself.  That  this 
plant  contained  a  kind  of  sugar  had  been  known  for  some 
time ;  it  was  grown  in  small  quantities  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  but  it  is  only  since  i860  that  it  has 
been  largely  grown  for  the  production  of  sugar.  By  1850  it 
had  reached  the  ratio  of  one  to  ten,  by  weight,  of  the  sugar 
produced  in  the  world.  Since  then  it  has  crept  up  ;  in  1866, 
one  to  four  ;  in  1885,  four  to  five  ;  in  1890  it  is  ahead,  five  to 
three  \ 

1  1849:    Beet        95,000  tons.  1885:  Beet    2,100,000  tons. 
Cane     930,000  Cane  2,500,000 

i860:  Beet      336,000  1890:  Beet    3,630,000 
Cane  1,500,000  Cane  2,118,000 


Ch.vi.]  Jamaica.  95 

And  a  still  further  obstacle  was  to  be  placed  in  the  path 
of  our  West  Indian  sugar  colonies ;  for  the  beet-growing 
nations  of  Europe  set  up  a  Bounty- system  for  the  fostering  of 
that  crop,  amounting  in  some  cases  to  £2  a  ton.  Hence  it  has 
come  about  that  our  own  colonies,  compelled  by  us  to  remain 
within  the  Free  Trade  circle,  had  to  see  their  rival  industry 
becoming  prosperous  under  a  Protective  system.  All  these 
causes  operated  to  bring  Jamaica's  already  reduced  produc- 
tion from  ,£2,800,000  in  1857  to  ,£1,400,000  in  1885  ;  and  of 
this  sugar  was  only  half,  for  fruits  for  the  United  States  were 
taking  its  place  as  the  more  profitable  business.  So  that 
the  prosperity  of  Jamaica  was  affected  by  three  causes  :  (1) 
by  the  compulsory  abandonment  of  its  industrial  method, 
(2)  by  the  advent  of  one  competitor  after  another  into  the 
market,  and  competitors  who  had  slave  labour  applied  to 
fresh  soils,  and  (3)  by  the  competition  of  another  plant  for 
which  its  own  soil  was  unfitted.  And  so  the  prosperity  of 
the  plantation  period  was  over,  and  Jamaica  is  now  being 
transformed  into  a  market  garden  and  orchard  for  tropical 
fruits  and  vegetables.  This  will  not  lead  to  great  incomes 
for  large  proprietors  as  of  old,  but  the  recent  official  reports 
show  that  it  is  leading  to  considerable  prosperity,  in  which 
the  labouring  or  peasant  classes  have  the  chief  share. 

In  other  West  Indian  colonies  the  pinch  has  not  been 
quite  so  severe  ;  in  Barbados  the  freed  negroes  had  no  unoc- 
cupied lands  upon  which  they  might  squat  and  set  up  as 
peasant  cultivators ;  they  remained  at  work  on  the  sugar 
plantations,  and  the  colony  has,  on  the  whole,  made  pro- 
gress in  many  respects,  although  the  gentry  are  not  so 
wealthy  as  before,  nor  are  absentee  proprietors  who  draw 
large  incomes  from  the  island  now  numerous.  In  Trinidad 
cocoa  is  largely  grown  in  addition  to  sugar,  and  both  there 
and  in  Guiana  the  coolie  system  is  in  vogue  (see  Chapter  ix). 
But  if  we  remember  that  exports  are  not  the  only  measure 
of  industrial  activity,  that  a  country  is  neither  a  farm  nor  a 
shop,  but  may  be  in  part  self-supplying,  there  is  little  ground 
for  complaint.  And  if  we  take  the  broad  test  of  the  number 
of  comfortable  homes  which  the  colonies  support  we  cannot 


96  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

but  feel  satisfied,  for  it  becomes  plain  that  if  there  is  no  longer 
opportunity  for  amassing  great  fortunes,  the  whole  level  of 
comfort  has  been  raised  throughout  the  islands.  In  Jamaica 
the  whites  are  diminishing  in  both  numbers,  wealth,  and 
preponderance  of  influence ;  hence  the  restriction  of  fran- 
chise became  unjustifiable1,  and  yet  its  extension  led  to  the 
serious  riots  in  which  Governor  Eyre  lost  his  place — though 
with  Carlyle  on  one  side  and  Mill  on  the  other  it  is  not 
possible  to  pass  either  absolute  acquittal  or  sweeping  con- 
demnation on  moral  grounds — and  the  island  passed  from 
the  standing  of  a  colony  to  that  of  a  dependency. 

Our  colonies  in  the  West  Indies  are,  however,  in  a  some- 
what critical  position.  There  is  reason  for  holding  that  these 
colonies  are  just  now  so  placed  as  to  be  far  from  deriving 
unmixed  advantage  from  remaining  within  the  empire  at 
all.  They  owe  their  position  to  the  imperial  relationship,  no 
doubt,  and  this  leads  to  important  commercial  ties.  But 
commerce,  like  politics,  must  not  reckon  on  gratitude  as 
a  motive  power ;  and  the  commercial  position  of  the  islands 
is  affected  adversely  by  their  subordination  to  England. 
First,  because  of  the  sugar  bounties  given  by  the  beet- 
root-growing countries  to  that  form  of  sugar,  handicapping 
our  cane-growing  colonies  in  our  market.  And,  secondly, 
they  are  kept  within  our  commercial  circle,  and  therefore 
are  not  able  to  treat  with  outside  nations  on  any  reciprocity 
plan,  however  advantageous  to  themselves  it  might  be 
proved  to  be.  The  United  States  is  a  natural  market  for 
their  sugar,  but  the  United  States  Government  has  to  deal 
with  these  islands  as  part  of  the  British  Empire,  and  there- 
fore it  can  enter  into  no  arrangement  of  the  kind  dear  to 
the  American  mind  such  as  giving  West  Indian  sugar  free 
access  in  return  for  the  West  Indian  colonies  giving  them 
some  advantage  in  return.  The  position  is  a  trying  one, 
and  cannot  be  permanent.      More  than  one  West  Indian 

1  The  population  at  the  last  census  was  14,432  whites  (there  used 
to  be  30,000);  coloured  (i.e.  of  mixed  race),  109,946;  blacks, 
444,186  ;  coolies  and  Chinese,  13,000.  The  black  and  coloured 
population  increased  nearly  12  per  cent,  in  the  last  ten  years. 


Ch.vi.]  Australia.  97 

has  spoken  in  public  of  the  possibility  of  separation  from 
the  empire  unless  Great  Britain  allows  them  fiscal  indepen- 
dence, such  as  has  long  ago  been  granted  to  the  colonies 
of  Australia,  Canada,  and  the  Cape.  Sentiment  is  wholly 
against  separation  from  England,  with  either  indepen- 
dence, or  admission  to  the  '  Union '  of  North  America  ;  but 
the  demand  for  liberty  to  negotiate  treaties  must  grow  as 
Guiana  increases  in  importance  and  Jamaica  continues  to 
find  the  relative  weight  of  its  external  trade  increase  in 
favour  of  the  United  States  in  comparison  with  Great  Britain  \ 
The  interests  of  this  million  and  a  quarter  of  people  do  not 
occupy  much  of  our  attention,  nor  ought  they  to  do  so.  But 
to  themselves  it  is  of  prime  importance  that  an  equitable 
solution  be  sought  without  delay. 

§  2.  Emigration  Colonies  :  Australia. 

Few  empires  have  suffered  the  shock  of  such  a  loss  as  that 
of  our  thirteen  prosperous  colonies  in  1776-83  without  the 
shattering  of  their  system.  But  the  actual  hindrance  to  the 
course  of  England's  imperial  progress  was  much  less  than 
appears  on  the  surface.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  we 
found  compensations  ;  and,  further,  for  a  long  period  the 
trade  connexion  was  not  seriously  injured,  as  the  United 
States  continued  to  deal  with  us  very  much  as  before  owing 
to  the  essentially  natural  course  which,  in  many  respects, 
trade  had  already  taken.  Our  attention  was  soon  drawn  to 
other  regions,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  we  went  on 
picking  up  old  colonies  here  and  there  :  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  (1806),  Guiana  (1803),  and  Ceylon  (1795),  all  from  the 
Dutch ;  Mauritius  from  France  (1810) ;  and  Trinidad  from 
Spain  (1797) ;  and  we  enlarged  our  hold  on  West  Africa,  while 
all  this  time  our  dominion  in  India  was  rapidly  extending. 
But  there  were  places  also  being  quietly  prepared  in  different 
quarters  of  the  globe  which  were  to  become  the  seats  of 

1  The  trade  of  Jamaica  was  in  1875  with  Great  Britain  £2,100,000, 
with  U.S.A.  £700,000  ;  in  1889  it  was,  with  Great  Britain  £1,500,000, 
with  U.S.A.  £1,300,000;  with  us  it  steadily  declines,  with  U.S.A.  it 
steadily  grows. 

H 


98  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.  vi. 

colonies  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term,  new  homes  for  the 
British  people  in  temperate  regions. 

The  name  of  Captain  James  Cook  stands  at  the  head  of 
the  Englishmen  who  prepared  for  this  new  movement. 
Travelling  very  largely  in  the  interest  of  general  science  and 
discovery — so  much  so  that  special  orders  were  given  by  the 
French  Government  that  he  was  not  to  be  interfered  with  by 
their  navy — he  was  at  the  same  time  preparing  for  our 
appearance  in  the  Southern  Seas.  In  1787  our  first  settle- 
ment was  made  on  the  shores  of  Australia  in  Port  Jackson, 
a  short  way  to  the  north  of  Captain  Cook's  '  Botany  Bay.' 
It  was  very  far  indeed  from  displaying  any  manifest  promise 
of  being  the  first  of  a  peculiarly  free  and  industrious 
group  of  communities.  The  first  motive  for  its  foundation 
was  of  an  opposite  kind,  namely,  to  found  a  prison  beyond 
the  seas.  This  was  the  actual  origin  of  the  first  Australian 
colony,  New  South  Wales,  and  for  a  long  time  the  system 
was  more  or  less  in  operation — in  Victoria,  then  in  Tasmania, 
then  in  Western  Australia  (see  Chapter  ix).  But  the  need 
for  emigration  of  freemen  became  pressing,  and  colonization 
of  this  kind  became  a  serious  subject  with  some  very 
thoughtful  men.  The  projector  who  made  most  impression 
in  the  new  movement  was  Edward  Gibbon  Wakefield,  who 
laid  down  as  a  principle  that  a  new  colony  should  set  aside 
a  certain  part  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  its  lands  for 
the  conveyance  of  fresh  immigrants  and  for  their  assistance 
in  starting  their  colonial  life.  His  plan  had  its  most  effec- 
tive trial  in  the  division  called  South  Australia  and  in 
New  Zealand  ;  and  although  the  new  colonies  in  no  case 
carried  it  out  continuously  and  strictly,  it  had  considerable 
influence. 

In  1 85 1  came  a  great  and  sudden  attraction  in  the  shape  of 
the  discovery  of  the  Ballarat  Gold-fields,  and  a  stream 
of  men,  mostly  of  adventurous  and  energetic  character, 
poured  over  :  some  to  get  rich  in  the  way  they  aimed  at, 
others  to  turn  from  disappointment  in  that  direction  to  other 
employments  of  a  more  ordinary  kind. 

As  the  colonies  grew,  the  despatch  of  convicts  from  Eng- 


Ch.vi.]  Australia.  99 

land  began  to  be  opposed,  and  at  home  men  like  Archbishop 
Whately,  who  were  convinced  that  the  system  was  pernicious, 
as  not  attaining  the  reformatory  effect  which  they  considered 
that  all  punishment  should  have,  joined  in  the  opposition. 
When  at  length  the  colonists  of  Victoria  declared  their  inten- 
tion of  sending  some  of  their  malefactors  to  England,  the 
Government  at  home  took  the  hint,  and  changed  the  place 
of  transportation  to  other  parts  of  Australia,  and  they 
presently  abandoned  the  system  entirely. 

The  original  colony,  New  South  Wales,  was  in  Australia 
something  what  Virginia  was  in  America ;  as  people 
came  out  and  occupied  land  at  vast  distances,  the  new 
colonies  of  Victoria  (1851)  and  Queensland  (1859)  were 
marked  off,  while  South  Australia  earlier  still  received  a  sepa- 
rate government,  the  Swan  River  Settlement  was  changed 
into  Western  Australia,  and  Tasmania  was  constituted  a 
separate  colony  so  early  as  in  1804.  For  New  Zealand  we 
had  a  race  with  the  French  in  1840,  gaining  first  formal  occu- 
pation by  only  three  days.  This  group  of  islands  had  passed 
through  a  series  of  informal  connexions  with  British  people ; 
whaling  ships  resorted  to  its  coast,  deserters  from  the  ships 
took  up  their  abode  there,  traders  with  the  natives  often 
called  there,  and  some  missionaries  had  been  despatched 
from  Australia.  A  New  Zealand  Company  was  formed,  and 
a  Government  connexion  made  by  the  appointment  of  Cap- 
tain Hobson  as  Governor  in  1840. 

The  history  of  the  Australian  colonies  has  been  almost 
purely  industrial.  New  Zealand,  for  example,  is  almost 
a  simple  case  of  a  purely  industrial  emigration  colony  of 
British  people.  It  was  not  sought  as  a  refuge  from  religious 
or  political  oppression  like  New  England,  or  founded  as  a 
convict  settlement,  like  New  South  Wales,  or  stimulated  into 
sudden  prosperity  by  a  rush  for  gold  like  Victoria ;  it  never 
knew  any  slavery  or  coolie  system  like  the  West  Indies,  nor 
does  it  contain  an  appreciably  important  foreign  element  like 
the  Cape  Colony  and  Canada,  and  it  has  not  now,  like  the 
last-named  important  member  of  the  empire,  to  live  in  con- 
stant  necessity  of  considering  everything  in  relation  to  a 

H  2 


ioo  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.  vi. 

powerful  neighbour.  Its  history  has  been  as  peaceful  and 
serene  as  that  of  an  English  county,  save  for  one  considerable 
difficulty,  that  of  finding  a  stable  basis  of  relationship  with  the 
native  race,  in  which  justice  to  them  should  be  harmonized 
with  our  own  colonial  development. 

But  in  this  way  Australian  progress  has  proved  somewhat 
unexpectedly  brilliant.  How  difficult  prophecy  is  in  matters  of 
such  a  scale  is  evident  from  the  following  opinion  of  one  of  our 
ablest  statisticians  of  the  last  generation.  Porter,  in  his  Progress 
of  the  Nation  (p.  133),  written  up  to  185 1,  thus  looked  out  on 
Australia's  future : — '  According  to  present  appearances  and 
the  knowledge  we  have  obtained  concerning  the  nature  of 
the  country,  it  does  not  appear  probable  that  Australia  can 
ever  become  an  agricultural  country.  ...  It  seems  impossible 
that  the  colony  can  ever  assume  anything  approaching 
the  importance  of  our  North  American  possessions — (then 
Canada  only) — either  in  regard  to  productiveness  or  to 
population.'  Certainly  Australia  has  not  caught  Canada  yet, 
but  it  has  nearly  three  million  peorjle  to  Canada's  five ;  but 
in  1889  the  external  trade  of  the  Australian  group  (not  in- 
cluding New  Zealand,  of  which  Porter  was  not  thinking)  was 
116  millions  sterling  to  the  42  millions  of  Canada. 

In  their  history,  therefore,  these  colonies  cannot  be  said  to 
offer  any  considerable  elements  of  romance  ;  they  need  for 
their  historians  not  bards  or  minstrels,  but  political  economists 
or  students  of  natural  science.  The  old  convict  days  and  the 
later  period  of  life  in  the  gold-fields  offered,  no  doubt,  a  scope 
for  the  portrayal  of  life  and  character  in  certain  rough  and 
picturesque  aspects,  but  they  have  not,  as  a  fact,  found  either 
a  Defoe  or  a  Bret  Harte  to  give  them  a  hold  on  the  imagin- 
ations of  the  English  people.  And,  again,  the  wild  un- 
fettered life  of  the  bush,  and  the  escapades  of  the  bush- 
rangers, have  failed  to  win  the  favour  of  any  powerful 
Muse,  and  they  remain  mostly  unhonoured  and  unsung1. 

1  Robbery  under  Arms  (Bush-ranging),  The  Miner's  Right 
(Gold  Mining),  and  The  Squatter's  Dream  (Squatting-life)  by  Rolf 
Boldrewood,  an  Australian  writer  (English  publisher,  Macmillan), 
deserve  attention  from  English  boys. 


Ch.vi.]  Canada.      '<   ■  >•"•  toi 

Perhaps  we  must  take  it  that  the  absorption  of  energy  in 
the  making  of  fortunes  has  prevented  the  formation  of  any 
such  leisured  class  as  is  the  matrix,  so  to  speak,  of  poets  and 
novelists,  and  also  that  the  overpowering  attractions  of  home 
literature  have  prevented  the  growth  of  Art  of  their  own. 
However  it  may  be,  the  fact  remains  that  English  boys,  who 
make  bosom  friends  of  imaginary  buccaneers  and  pirates,  of 
backwoodsmen  and  Red  Indian  chiefs,  have  formed  little 
personal  acquaintance  with  the  whalers  or  kidnappers  or 
bushrangers  of  Australia.  The  tragic  story  of  Burke  and 
Wills  and  Wright,  in  their  brave  but  ill-managed  endeavour 
to  make  a  track  across  the  Australian  continent,  stands 
almost  alone  among  the  enterprises  of  adventure  in  that 
quarter  of  the  world  in  having  won  a  permanent  place  in  the 
memories  of  ordinary  Britons  at  home. 

Accordingly  we  refer  to  the  chapters  on  Trade  and 
Government  and  the  Supply  of  Labour  for  some  glimpses 
of  the  elements  of  Australian  history  which  offer  the  most 
important  material  for  the  student  of  the  colonial  phase  of 
English  history. 

§  3.  Canada. 

The  War  of  Independence,  which  removed  from  the  empire 
the  bulk  of  our  own  colonists,  proved  no  obstacle  to  our  still 
retaining  a  very  powerful  grip  on  the  continent  of  North 
America.  Our  own  early  colony  of  Newfoundland—  prac- 
tically ours  for  colonizing  purposes  since  the  days  of  Eliza- 
beth, although  the  great  cod-fisheries  were  by  treaties  kept 
open  for  general  resort — remained  unaffected,  as  did  the  ter- 
ritory called  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence  estuary.  But  the  nucleus  of 
the  new  British  North  America  was  beyond  the  St.  Law- 
rence, the  province  of  Quebec,  acquired  from  France  in 
1763.  At  the  outset  of  the  War  of  Independence  we  very 
nearly  lost  this  foothold  too.  A  very  unstatesmanlike 
measure  in  1774  (the  Quebec  Act1)  had  disgusted  both  the 

1  This  Act  made  the  provinces  into  one  royal  government  under 


io?  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

English  and  the  French  colonists,  and,  in  fact,  all  Canada 
was  occupied  by  the  friends  of  the  thirteen  revolted 
colonies,  except  the  keystone,  Quebec.  But,  on  the  whole, 
the  French  inhabitants  of  these  provinces  had  but  little 
sympathy  with  their  New  England  neighbours,  either  in 
personal  character  or  in  political  principles,  and  the  few 
British  subjects  who  had  already  settled  there  were  joined  in 
considerable  numbers  by  English  people  from  the  sepa- 
rated colonies,  who,  under  the  name  of  Royalists,  had 
sided  with  the  English  Government  in  the  war.  The 
French  population  was  some  65,000  when  we  took  over  the 
province  ;  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that  we  find  growing  here, 
under  British  government  and  under  British  political  insti- 
tutions, the  most  successful  ''colony''  which  has  ever  issued 
from  the  French  nation.  Besides  about  a  quarter  of  a  million 
people  of  French  origin  in  other  parts  of  the  present 
Dominion,  there  is  a  compact  community  of  over  a  million 
people  of  French  birth  or  French  descent  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Quebec,  a  number  twice  as  great  as  that  of  French 
people  in  the  whole  of  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  the 
French  Republic  to-day.  It  is  not  with  any  foolish  self-com- 
placency that  we  claim  that  the  exchange  of  French  rule 
for  British  was  a  distinct  gain  even  for  the  French  colonists 
in  1763.  They  themselves  are  the  best  judges,  and  their 
contentment  is  their  verdict.  Our  rule  freed  them  from  a 
number  of  oppressive  feudal  burdens  which  had  been  carried 
over  the  water  and  were  insisted  upon  by  the  seigneurs 
recognised  by  the  French  Government.  In  fact,  we  may 
fairly  say  that  we  saved  them  the  trouble  of  either  taking 
sides  in  the  great  Revolution  which  was  soon  to  come  upon 
their  native  country,  or  of  effecting  a  revolution  for  themselves. 
They  could  at  once  benefit  by  the  advance  of  English  con- 
stitutional and  social  ideas,  and  they  accepted  it  as  a  de- 
liverance. And  it  further  happened  that  our  appearance  on 
that  side  of  the  river  soon  gave  rise  to  dissatisfaction  among 

the  name  of  Quebec  ;  it  ignored  the  representative  principle,  placing 
all  power  in  the  hands  of  a  royal  council  ;  it  re-established  the 
French  legal  system  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 


Ch.  vi.]  Canada.  103 

the  Red  Indians,  which  came  to  a  head  in  a  thrilling 
tragedy,  the  conspiracy  of  Pontiac.  The  necessity  of  meet- 
ing this  vigorously  put  the  Red  Indian  difficulty  on  a  footing 
which  was  peaceful  and  secure  in  comparison  with  the 
harassing  and  discouraging  condition  in  which  we  found 
them.  From  time  to  time  troubles  arose,  and  there  was 
some  friction  between  the  French  element  and  the  British, 
but  all  this  did  not  prove  sufficient  to  prevent  the  French 
province  of  Quebec  from  agreeing  to  the  formation  of  the 
Federation  which  unified  Canada  in  1858,  nor  sufficient  to 
prevent  that  Federation  from  being  on  the  whole  a  great 
success.  We  have  therefore  achieved  successfully  the  incor- 
poration of  a  foreign  colony  within  a  British  one,  not  only 
with  their  consent,  but  without  depriving  them  of  the  quali- 
ties which  distinguish  them,  and  without  checking  their  pros- 
perity, which  makes  it  all  the  more  surprising  that  our 
nation  has  not  found  six  centuries  sufficient  to  effect  similar 
results  in  Ireland. 

The  original  province  was  divided  into  two,  Upper  and 
Lower  Canada,  in  1791.  In  the  former  the  settlers  were 
mainly  British  ;  and  their  first  legislative  assembly  not  only 
placed  the  province  on  a  line  with  the  mother-country  as  to 
laws  regulating  property  and  civil  rights,  but  had  the  honour 
of  passing  in  its  very  first  session  an  Act  abolishing  slavery, 
even  for  the  negro.  By  18 12  the  colony  was  so  well  satis- 
fied that  its  interest  lay  in  remaining  within  the  British 
Empire  that,  in  spite  of  some  very  trying  experiences,  both 
French  and  English  elements  united  in  opposing  the  at- 
tempts of  the  United  States — then  at  war  with  Great  Britain 
— to  draw  them  into  union  with  themselves.  And  just  as 
these  attempts  failed  with  the  English  element,  so  the  long 
hostilities  between  Great  Britain  and  France  did  not  alienate 
the  French  element ;  a  striking  instance  of  the  power  of 
proved  interest  to  override  divergence  of  sentiment  and 
religion  and  nationality.  There  was,  however,  a  con- 
stitutional revolution  in  1837,  due  to  a  lack  of  full  repre- 
sentation in  the  Government  and  some  soreness  between  the 
two  colonies.     The  revolt  was  quelled,  and  a  governor,  Lord 


104  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

Durham,  sent  out  specially  to  report.  The  result  of  that 
report  eventually  was  a  union  of  the  colonies  as  '•provinces ' 
of  a  single  colony,  and  a  completely  representative 
government  so  far  as  their  internal  affairs  are  concerned. 
(See  Chapter  vii.) 

In  1867  the  idea  of  union  was  carried  farther :  the  colonies 
of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick — hitherto  quite  separate 
from  each  other,  hanging  each  by  its  own  stem  to  the 
parent-tree  —  were  united  with  Canada  proper,  and  the 
whole  group  were  formed  into  a  single  federation  as  the 
'  Dominion  of  Canada.'  Newfoundland  declined  to  join, 
and  is  still  outside  the  Dominion.  Later  on,  divisions  of  the 
vast  territory  to  the  west  and  north-west  of  the  older  settle- 
ments were  made,  and  one  by  one  created  '  provinces  '  of  the 
Dominion  on  the  same  terms  as  their  older  colonies :  Mani- 
toba, British  Columbia,  and  the  North-West  Territories  (in- 
cluding Assiniboia,  Saskatchewan,  Alberta,  Athabasca,  and  an 
unnamed  region),  are  the  separate  provinces  to-day.  Prince 
Edward  Island,  near  Nova  Scotia,  is  the  latest  member  of 
the  Dominion.  The  seat  of  central  government  is  at  a  town 
virtually  created  for  the  purpose,  Ottawa.  The  proportionate 
importance  of  the  various  provinces  is  shown  by  the  com- 
position of  the  Lower  House  of  the  Dominion  Parliament : — 
Ontario  (formerly  '  Upper  Canada '),  88  members  ;  Quebec, 
65  ;  Nova  Scotia,  21 ;  New  Brunswick,  16;  British  Columbia, 
6;  Prince  Edward  Island,  6;  Manitoba,  5.  The  North- 
West  Territory  has  not  yet  a  population  sufficiently  concen- 
trated to  be  formed  into  electoral  districts. 

A  connecting  link  of  no  small  importance  within  the 
Dominion,  and  a  bond  between  Europe  and  Asia,  has  been 
constructed  in  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  from  Quebec 
to  Vancouver,  along  which  trains  have  run  since  1885.  This 
line  is  3000  miles  long,  running  chiefly  over  vast  prairies, 
but  with  300  miles  of  tunnelling  through  solid  stone  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  It  forms  a  route  between  China  and 
Liverpool  shorter  by  1000  miles  than  the  earlier  trans- 
American  route,  the  Central  Pacific  by  San  Francisco.  Its 
importance  in  the  development  of  Canada  and  in  the  linking 


Ch.  vi.]  Africa.  105 

together  of  Europe's  western  shores  with  Asia's  eastern  is 
beyond  adequate  estimation.  Lines  of  steamers  between 
Vancouver  and  China,  Japan,  and  Australia,  are  being 
organized,  and  an  English  traveller  may  reach  Sydney,  or 
Shanghai,  or  Yokohama,  without  having  seen  any  but  the 
British  flag  on  his  route ;  and,  so  far  from  having  turned  a 
mile  out  of  his  way,  he  will  have  saved  ten  days  by  having 
seen  no  other  land  than  British  territory. 

There  is  over  all  human  things  of  any  compass  at  least 
one  shadow  ;  the  shadow  of  Canadian  destiny,  so  far  as  its 
position  as  a  British  colony  is  concerned,  lies  in  its  having  a 
long  border  of  3000  miles,  with  no  physical  boundary  along  a 
very  large  part  of  it,  and  no  natural  bulwark  anywhere,  and 
with  the  most  rapidly  growing  nation  in  the  world  stretched 
mile  for  mile  along  the  other  side  of  that  border.  The  possi- 
bility of  annexation  being  demanded  from  across  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  the  lakes  must  be  in  every  Canadian  mind ;  and 
circumstances  will  from  time  to  time  force  it  into  flame  or 
leave  it  smouldering.  For  the  present  we  may  claim  liberty 
to  leave  it,  but  we  are  bound  not  to  ignore  its  possibility,  or 
to  refrain  from  indicating  the  manifest  probability  that  the 
question  will  ultimately  find  its  solution  in  the  minds  of  the 
60,000,000  of  the  United  States,  who  have  three  courses  from 
which  to  choose :  Compulsory  Federation  by  gradually  but 
persistently  drawing  Canada  towards  themselves,  or  by 
violent  measures  in  some  crisis,  or  acquiescence  in  the 
manifest  preference  of  the  Canadians  for  the  present  regime. 

§  4.  Africa. 

When  we  took  charge  of  the  Dutch  possessions  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  *,  in  the  brief  period  when  Holland  was 
under  the  power  of  France  at  the  close  of  last  century,  the 
Dutch  had  not  made  any  extensive  settlement  themselves : 

1  The  English  took  forcible  possession  of  the  Cape  in  1795,  but 
the  Peace  of  Amiens  restored  it  to  the  Netherlands  in  1803.  I*1  J8o6 
we  resumed  possession,  and  at  the  Peace  of  1815  it  was  finally  ceded 
to  us. 


106  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.          [Ch.vI. 

a  century  and  a  half  had  not  carried  them  beyond  some  10,000 
white  people,  and  these  were  so  far  from  being  helped  by 
their  home  government  that  their  trade  was  hampered,  and 
they  themselves  dispersed  to  an  absurd  extent  about  the  vast 
territory.  So  little  of  promise  was  there  that  the  last  of  the 
Dutch  governors  saw  no  chance  for  more  European  immi- 
grants finding  a  living :  and  so  little  was  trade  organized  that 
some  wool  brought  down  to  the  beach  was  unsold,  and  lay  there 
until  the  winds  scattered  it.  In  contrast  with  this,  the  white 
population  in  1885  was  estimated  at  340,000,  and  the  value 
of  the  wool  exported  in  1884  was  a  million  and  three  quarters 
sterling.  England  at  first  took  the  colony  as  a  protectorate, 
as  there  was  great  danger  of  its  falling  under  French 
influence  when  Holland  had  to  succumb  to  France,  and 
whilst  the  French  navy  was  still  strong.  We  evacuated  the 
country  at  the  Peace  of  Amiens  in  1802,  but  re-occupied  it 
when  war  was  resumed,  and  insisted  on  retaining  it  at  the 
settlement  of  affairs  in  181 5.  It  was  an  important  naval 
position,  and  we  felt  also  that  it  would  be  of  service  for 
colonizing  purposes.  But  we  had  little  idea  of  the  compli- 
cated problem  which  we  were  undertaking  to  deal  with. 
We  were  at  once  making  a  fresh  outlet  for  British  capital  and 
labour,  and  incorporating  a  group  of  foreign  European  set- 
tlers of  stiffer  mould  than  the  French  group  in  Canada, 
and,  besides  this,  were  laying  the  foundation  of  an  interest 
in  Africa  which  was  to  prove  that  on  that  continent  too  our 
nationality  was  to  be  the  chief  instrument  of  European 
influence. 

The  Northern  coast  of  Africa  was  naturally  a  colonizing 
ground  for  the  Mediterranean  nations,  but  France  has 
proved  the  only  one  to  take  advantage  of  it.  Spain  has  some 
connexion  with  Morocco,  and  Italy  has  interests  in  Tunis, 
while  Egypt  was  regarded  for  years  as  of  international  con- 
cern. The  West  of  Africa  was  open  to  all ;  France  has  long 
had  some  territory  there,  and  she  has  recently  considerably 
extended  it;  we  have  enlarged  ours;  and  in  1884  Germany 
took  up  a  position.  Further  south  on  the  same  coast  Portugal 
retained  a  hold ;   and   on   the   marking    out   of  the  river 


Ch.vi.]  Africa.  107 

Congo  an  International  State  was  formed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Belgium  immediately,  of  France  in  reversion, 
recognised  by  agreement  of  the  nations  assembled  at  the 
Berlin  Conference  of  1885  x.  At  this  Conference  an  under- 
standing was  arrived  at  which  has  been  at  the  basis  of 
the  negotiations  of  1890-91  between  the  European  powers. 
It  was  decided  that  any  nation  desirous  of  taking  an  interest 
in  any  of  the  newly-opened-out  regions  of  Africa  should 
notify  this  desire  to  the  other  powers  of  Europe.  The 
Congo  State  was  the  first-fruit  of  this,  Belgium,  by  the 
activity  of  her  king,  taking  the  place  that  Holland  might 
rather  have  been  expected  to  secure.  On  the  East  side 
Portugal  retains  another  tract,  and  Germany  has  appeared 
again  ;  while  even  Italy  has  made  a  beginning  for  external 
dominion.  But  all  these  possessions  and  occupations  and 
sovereignties  are  of  less  importance  than  the  permanent  and 
progressive  colonies  settled  by  England  in  the  south  (to  say 
nothing  of  her  protectorates  on  the  east,  in  the  centre, 
and  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  basin  of  River  Niger).  They 
are  nearly  all  comparatively  recent  and  unformed,  and  are 
not  of  the  physical  character  required  for  colonies  of  the 
most  valuable  type ;  while  in  the  South  England  is  filling 
up  large  colonies,  and  constantly  pushing  their  boundaries 
farther  and  farther  into  the  interior.  Our  peculiar  advan- 
tages are  two  :  (1)  the  very  obvious  one  that  we  have  estab- 
lished in  the  South  a  solid  basis  of  operations  in  an  almost 
European  climate ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  facilities  of  navigation 
common  to  all  the  nations  colonizing  in  Africa,  we  have  the 
advantage  in  that  we  are  extending  colonies  already  formed ; 
and  (2)  the  physical  conditions  of  the  African  coast.  This 
coast  at  Delagoa  Bay  and  onward  to  the  Zambesi  mouth 
is  too  malarious  for  Europeans  to  be  able  to  take  their 
families  there  and  establish  permanent  homes  by  forming 
great  seaports.     Much  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  western 

1  This  Conference  is  called  the  International  Congo  Conference  of 
Berlin,  1885,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Congress  at  Berlin  in  1878, 
which  dealt  with  the  affairs  of  South-Eastern  Europe  after  the  Russo- 
Turkish  War. 


108  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.  vi. 

coast  between  Cape  Colony  and  Benguela  (in  the  hands  of 
Germany).  The  ports  will  therefore  be  on  the  southern 
curve  of  the  continent,  even  for  the  territories  far  inland,  and 
this  curve  is  in  our  hands.  These  advantages  give  us  the 
foremost  place  now  and  the  greatest  promise  for  the  future. 

The  problems  before  our  South  African  colonies  are : 
(i)  (a)  to  arrive  at  a  thoroughly  workable  understanding 
with  our  Dutch  fellow-colonists,  and  (b)  with  such  Dutchmen 
as  are  still  independent  neighbours  ;  and  (2)  to  do  the  best 
for  the  native  races,  especially  by  training  these  to  take 
their  place  at  our  side  in  the  formation  of  a  mixed  com- 
munity. 

The  Dutch  in  South  Africa. 

In  solving  the  former  of  these  the  English  and  the  Dutch 
have  managed  to  live  on,  but  in  a  hand-to-mouth  fashion, 
and  the  Boer  war  of  1879  showed  how  far  we  were  from  real 
and  effective  harmony  after  eighty  years'  dwelling  together. 
The  inclusion  in  our  empire  of  a  large  territory  to  which 
dissatisfied  Dutchmen  had  moved  across  the  Vaal  river, 
proved  to  be  premature ;  we  had  to  fight,  and  the  Boers  had 
the  best  of  it ;  and  then  we  decided  not  to  bring  our  strength 
to  bear,  but  to  give  way.  They  occupy  accordingly  two 
very  extensive  regions,  one  quite  independent,  under  the 
name  of  the  Orange  Free  State ;  the  other,  the  relinquished 
Transvaal,  or  South  African  Republic,  internally  inde- 
pendent, but  under  our  control  so  far  as  relations  with  other 
States  are  concerned.  But  although  the  actual  settlement 
of  this  part  of  the  problem  is  still  to  be  worked  out,  we  can 
have  no  doubt  what  the  result  will  be  when  we  look  at  the 
problem  in  a  really  comprehensive  way.  The  incorporation 
of  these  countries  is  only  a  question  of  time.  The  Boers, 
though  in  the  majority  in  South  Africa  at  present,  are  not 
increasing  so  fast  as  the  English  colonists,  and  no  stream  of 
emigration  can  be  directed  from  Holland  of  anything  like 
the  volume  of  the  stream  from  the  British  Isles.  Already 
indeed  the  English  element  is  becoming  unmanageable  by 
the  Boer  Governments,  and  such  men  as  go  out  there  are  of 


Ch.vi.]  The  Kaffirs  and  other  Natives.  109 

a  temper  not  to  be  trifled  with  whenever  they  take  their 
affairs  heartily  into  their  own  hands.  Another  imperial  war 
is  not  likely:  it  would  be  exceedingly  unpopular  at  home, 
even  for  the  support  of  our  fellow-countrymen,  and  if  it  came 
to  be  an  actual  conflict  our  colonists  would  be  all  the  better 
for  depending  on  themselves.  That  British  supremacy 
within  the  older  portions  of  the  Cape  Colony  will  be  settled 
eventually  on  a  peaceful  and  recognised  basis  there  is  no 
reason  for  doubting.  We  have  come  to  terms  with  French 
Canadians  ;  Germans  in  great  numbers  find  satisfaction 
in  the  constitutional  liberties  of  Australian  colonies  and 
American  States,  where,  though  strong  in  numbers  and 
wealth,  they  live  contented  amongst  Englishmen  or  men  of 
English  race  :  and  no  cause  can  be  discovered  to  be  at  work 
which  permanently  threatens  to  prevent  a  sound  modus 
vivendi  being  reached  at  the  Cape,  with  thorough  harmony 
eventually.  At  present  the  extensive  areas  of  the  Transvaal 
and  the  Orange  Free  State  are  occupied  chiefly  for  pasture, 
but  their  rich  mineral  resources  will  soon  be  tapped.  A 
network  of  railways  is  being  laid  down  which  will  develop 
a  community  of  interest  that  must  go  far  to  make  concord 
among  all  Europeans  in  South  Africa  both  easy  and  indis- 
pensable. 

The  Kaffirs  and  other  Natives. 

Nor  is  the  second  problem  one  likely  to  be  of  insuperable 
difficulty.  The  condition  of  the  native  inhabitants  of  the 
colony  of  Natal  under  our  rule  has  proved  indeed  to  be  so 
satisfactory  to  the  natives  themselves  that  the  difficulty  that 
had  to  be  faced  there  was  to  keep  them  from  pressing 
into  the  colony  in  unmanageable  and  undesirable  numbers. 
Numerous  and  costly  wars  have  been  waged  with  tribes  of 
Kaffirs  as  our  colonies  grew,  but  perhaps  the  great  Zulu  war  of 
1879-80  was  the  last  on  a  large  scale :  disturbances  may 
occur  in  the  future,  and  border  warfare  may  have  again  to 
be  faced ;  but  we  have  already  included  many  of  the  most 
vigorous  tribes  within  our  dominion,  and  are  working  out 
relations  with  those  dwelling  immediately  beyond  our  borders. 


no  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.        [Ch.  vi. 

Government  in  South  Africa. 
There  has  been  at  times  in  South  African  history  a  serious 
want  of  accord  between  the  Imperial  Government  and  the 
Governinent  of  the  Colony  in  relation  to  the  acquisition  and 
administration  of  native  territories.  The  Imperial  Govern- 
ment has  intervened  to  an  extent  which  the  colonists  have 
resented  as  contrary  to  their  own  rights,  and  as  interfering 
with  their  free  development,  and  therefore  as  detrimental 
to  the  English  cause  in  South  Africa.  The  position  of  affairs 
is  one  of  transitional  character.  The  Home  Government  has 
not  set  up  the  Cape  Colony  as  Suzerain  over  several  newly- 
added  territories,  but  has  reserved  the  sovereignty.  For 
this  purpose  a  High  Commissionership  for  South  Africa  has 
been  established,  but  the  pre-eminence  of  the  Cape  Colony  is 
recognised  by  the  appointment  of  the  Governor  of  that  colony 
to  the  High  Commissionership.  In  discharging  his  commis- 
sion, however,  he  is  not  in  any  way  bound  to  act  upon  the  ad- 
vice of  the  Cape  Ministry,  as  he  is  in  the  affairs  of  the  Cape 
Colony  itself :  for  other  districts  he  acts  in  direct  responsi- 
bility to  the  Crown.  Accordingly,  South  Africa  in  189 1 
presents  a  variety  of  relationship  between  a  mother-country 
and  outlying  dependencies  which  is  quite  unique  in  the 
number  of  its  grades.  A  glance  at  the  accompanying  map 
shows  the  territories ;  the  varieties  of  political  status  are  as 
follows : — 

i.  Under  Responsible  Government  * — Cape  Colony  :  in- 
cluding Griqualand  West,  and  the  isolated  patch  at  Walfisch 
Bay. 

ii.  Under  Semi-Responsible  Government — Natal. 

iii.  Under  the  Governor  of  Cape  Colony— 

(a)  As  High  Commissioner  for  S.  Africa :  Basutoland, 
Pondoland,  the  British  Protectorate,  the  British  Sphere  of 
Influence. 

(b)  As  Governor  of  Cape  Colony :  The  Crown  Colony  of 
British  Bechuanaland. 

(c)  As  High    Commissioner  for  S.  E.  Africa,  with  the 

1  See  chapter  on  Government. 


Ch.vi.]  Trade.  .  -    in 

Governor  of  Natal  as  Special  Commissioner:  Zululand, 
Amatongaland. 

iv.  Under  a  British  and  Boer  COMMITTEE  OF  CONTROL 
— Swaziland. 

v.  Under  British  Suzerainty  as  regards  foreign  relations 
— Transvaal  (the  S.  African  Republic). 

vi.  Independent — The  Orange  Free  State. 

Trade. 

The  trade  of  our  South  African  colonies  has  been  much 
assisted  by  the  discovery  of  Diamonds  in  profitable  quantities, 
amounting  to  something  like  three  million  pounds'  worth  a 
year  for  some  years,  and  the  towns  of  Kimberley  and  Johan- 
nesberg  are  entirely  supported  by  a  mining  population. 
Another  article  of  luxury,  Ostrich  feathers,  has  proved  a 
source  of  profit,  nearly  a  million  pounds'  worth  annually 
being  exported.  The  industry  of  Natal  (a  separate  colony 
since  1856)  shows  an  inclination  towards  a  semi-tropical 
industrial  character  in  the  form  of  sugar-planting,  and  more 
than  30,000  coolies  imported  from  India  are  now  at  work  on 
the  plantations. 

The  extension  of  our  interest  inland  is  proceeding  by 
means  of  the  old  method  of  a  Chartered  Company — the 
British  South  African.  This  charter,  like  the  old  ones, 
confers  a  certain  amount  of  quasi-political  authority,  but 
this  is  so  guarded  as  not  to  commit  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  all  that  the  Company  may  do.  By  means  of  an 
expeditionary  force  of  volunteers  the  Company  surveys  land 
in  the  territory  under  our  '  Influence,'  makes  preliminary 
treaties  with  native  chiefs,  and  lays  foundations  for  future 
advance.  A  Bishop  of  one  of  the  South  African  dioceses 
made  a  special  journey  in  1889  and  reported  to  his  friends  at 
home  on  the  opening  for  missionary  work  in  these  regions, 
beyond  even  where  Moffat  laboured  for  so  long. 

The  Partition  of  Africa  of  1890. 
The  year  1890  will  be  a  memorable  one  in  history  for  both 
Europe  and  Africa.     It  has  seen   the  carrying  out  of  the 


112  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.  vi. 

policy  of  which  the  lines  were  laid  down  at  the  Berlin  Con- 
ference of  1885.  By  this  on  the  one  hand  Africa  is  drawn 
into  the  vortex  of  civilization,  and  on  the  other  the  spheres 
of  the  various  European  nations  are  marked  out,  so  far  as 
assignment  of  territory  by  mutual  agreement  can  do  it. 

This  partition  is  in  many  ways  remarkable,  and  not  least 
in  that  it  has  been  arranged  without  war  :  diplomacy  has 
had  a  real  triumph.  Opportunities  for  dispute  abounded, 
but  no  one  would  fight,  and  terms  were  promptly  settled, 
except  between  Britain  and  Portugal,  and  Britain  and  Italy, 
which  required  longer  deliberation. 

Our  first  treaty  was  with  the  Germans ;  and,  as  croakers  of 
both  nations  denounced  their  respective  Foreign  Offices,  there 
is  probability  that  something  like  equity  has  been  attained. 
Englishmen  have  been  especially  gratified  by  being  at  last 
established  at  Zanzibar,  the  emporium  of  general  trade,  and 
in  Uganda,  so  important  for  interior  communication.  It  is 
well  to  remember  that  our  position  here  is  really  imperial, 
not  purely  national,  as  a  large  portion  of  the  trade  of  that 
region  is  carried  on  by  our  Indian  fellow-subjects,  not  by 
English  people. 

In  April  1891  negotiations  were  still  proceeding  with  the 
Portuguese,  in  the  south-east,  and  with  the  Italians,  on  the  ex- 
treme north  of  this  central  district ;  but  it  is  plain  that  England 
can  agree  to  no  delimitation  as  final  which  prevents  an  open 
road  being  kept  from  her  southern  colonies  right  up  to  the  val- 
ley of  the  Nile — not  because  any  traffic  would  go  all  the  way 
from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  but  because  an  open  track 
through  the  heart  of  Africa  will  revolutionize  the  continent. 
She  has  not  claimed  to  control  all  this  tract,  DUt  insists  that 
it  be  kept  open. 

The  praise  of  railways  as  means  of  effecting  the  advance 
of  civilization  is  sounded  so  loudly  that  sometimes  we  feel 
sure  there  is  exaggeration  which  can  lead  only  to  disappoint- 
ment. Still,  at  some  stages  of  progress  railways  have  cer- 
tainly worked  wonderful  changes,  and  we  may  at  any  rate 
hope  that  for  Central  Africa  we  shall  find  truth  in  what 
an  African  traveller   (Mr.   H.   H.  Johnston)    has  written: 


Hevr  York,  Charle*  Scfibn^s  Sona. 


Ch.vi.]        .'  West  Africa.  113 

*  There  is  no  civilizer  like  the  railway ;  and  to  build  a 
railway  through  an  uncivilized  country  is  to  centiple  its 
existing  trade,  or  to  create  commerce  if  none  exists :  the 
railway  saps  race  prejudices,  and  dissolves  fanaticism.'  The 
railways  and  lakes  of  Africa  may  become  the  finest  highway 
in  the  world. 

West  Africa. 

The  Coast  Settlements. 

The  events  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  diverted  us  from 
our  earliest  African  settlements,  the  Gambia  and  the  Gold 
Coast.  The  development  of  these  has  not  been  striking,  even 
with  the  addition  of  Sierra  Leone  and  Lagos.  The  obstacles  are 
twofold — (1)  The  coast  is  so  deadly  for  white  people  that  the 
English  element  has  always  been  very  scanty  in  amount,  and, 
it  must  be  confessed,  meagre  in  moral  fibre.  These  colonies 
have  been  a  refuge  for  men  who  have  failed  in  legal  and 
medical  and  mercantile  pursuits,  tempted  by  high  salary  to  hope 
for  success  not  attainable  at  home,  or  frankly  going  out  to  an 
'  honourable  suicide,'  and  there  was  a  time  when  slave-traders 
and  'palm-oil  ruffians  '  represented  Christendom  to  the  negro 
tribes.  It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  abolition  of  the 
Slave  Trade,  the  increase  of  steam-ship  communication,  and 
the  strengthening  of  the  authority  of  the  Government,  have 
much  improved  the  quality  of  our  influence,  especially  since 
the  Ashanti  war,  and  competent  observers  report  that  the  im- 
provement continues.  The  whole  white  population  is  but 
a  few  hundred  people,  and  a  few  years  ago  there  were  only 
two  European  ladies  in  Sierra  Leone,  the  wife  of  the  Bishop 
and  the  wife  of  a  medical  man.  And  (2)  the  character  of  the 
neighbouring  Negro  tribes  has  proved  much  less  tractable 
than  that  of  the  tribes  of  the  great  Bantu  family  in  the 
east  and  south.  The  potentates  of  West  Africa,  such  as 
the  kings  of  Dahomey  and  Ashanti,  remain  much  as  they 
were  before  they  knew  us  ;  and  the  tribes  on  the  coast 
do  not  impress  observers  with  any  confidence  in  their  hold 
on  either  religion  or  civilization.     The  prosperity  of  Free 

I 


114  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.        [Ch.vi. 

Town  and  of  Lagos  is  very  considerable,  especially  that  of 
the  latter,  but  it  is  the  prosperity  of  seaports,  not  of  indi- 
genous peoples  engaged  in  their  own  occupations. 

The  new  Niger  Territory. 

But  here,  too,  a  change  has  come  over  the  prospect. 
Hitherto  by  West  Africa  we  have  understood  the  coast-line 
from  the  Gambia  to  the  Congo,  and  it  is  the  unhealthiness  of 
the  coast,  arising  from  the  combination  of  extreme  dampness 
and  heat,  which  has  been  in  the  way  of  any  very  successful 
colonization  or  influence.  But  now  we  are  moving  upon  the 
Interior  plateau,  between  the  Niger  and  Lake  Tchad,  where 
we  have  secured  a  considerable  territory  as  a  Protectorate. 
Here  there  are  large  and  vigorous  Negro  tribes,  Mohammedans 
tinged  with  Arab  blood,  and,  if  they  will  co-operate  with  us,  a 
very  different  future  opens  out.  It  is  a  land  of  grassy  tracts, 
breezy  and  dry,  a  land  of  large  game,  and  it  may  become, 
what  indeed  it  already  is  to  some  extent,  a  great  feeding  dis- 
trict for  cattle  and  horses  ;  and  there  are  not  wanting  signs  of 
great  mineral  resources.  International  arrangements  with 
France  and  Germany  have  been  made  here  also.  The 
French  had  a  settlement  at  Senegal  in  1637,  just  after  we  began 
ours  on  the  Gambia,  and  since  1857  they  have  been  extending 
at  the  back  of  Sierra  Leone,  besides  adding  to  detached  terri- 
tories along  the  coast ;  and  the  Germans  have  taken  up  a 
district  around  the  Cameroons.  But  M.  de  Vogue  considers 
that  our  fan-shaped  territory,  spreading  out  from  its  basis  on 
the  sea,  is  perhaps  the  most  enviable  situation  in  all' Africa. 

Here,  too,  we  find  the  Company  method  again  in  vogue,  a 
British  Niger  Co?npany  having  been  established  in  1884  for 
developing  our  influence  in  this  region.  Taken  altogether, 
there  is  every  prospect  that  British  West  Africa  will  some  day 
develop  into  something  more  important  than  the  small  colonies 
hitherto  distinguished  by  their  unhealthiness  of  climate,  the 
inferiority  of  their  European  element,  and  the  secondhand 
character  of  the  civilization  acquired  by  the  natives.  In  this 
future  the  great  native  tribes  will  be  called  upon  to  take  their 
part.    Judging  by  the  success  of  the  French  administration, 


Ch.  vi.]  West  Africa.  I 1 5 

so  far  as  it  has  extended,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
a  policy  of  friendliness  and  upright  dealing  on  our  part  will 
be  responded  to  by  the  Negro  tribes,  who  show  great  readi- 
ness to  seize  upon  tangible  advantages,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  be  influenced  by  noble  sentiment. 

The  consideration  of  Africa  has  introduced  us  to  two  new 
adventurers  in  the  region  of  colonization  :  Germany  and 
Italy.  The  advent  of  Germany  dates  from  the  Conference  at 
Berlin  of  1885.  She  had  furnished  some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished of  African  travellers,  notably  Dr.  Barth  and  others 
who  opened  the  way  to  Lake  Tchad,  and  was  feeling  that  she 
ought  not  to  be  open  to  the  reproach  that  she  could  supply 
discoverers  and  colonists  but  could  not  herself  colonize  or 
administer.  Accordingly  she  took  up  three  separate  positions 
in  Africa:  on  the  East  coast  opposite  Zanzibar;  on  the 
South-West  coast  at  Angra  Pequena,  to  the  north  of  the 
Orange  River ;  and  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  at  the  Cameroon 
Mountains.  Great  interest  was  roused  in  Germany,  and  a 
map  published  at  Berlin  in  1886  was  freely  coloured  to  show 
dominion  stretching  from  these  coast-districts  to  the  far 
interior,  and  hinting  at  a  broad  band  of  German  territory  across 
Africa  from  West  to  East.  The  late  treaty  has  definitely  given 
her  what  almost  amounts  to  this,  and  although  her  terri- 
tories do  not  meet  in  the  centre,  which  is  occupied  by 
the  neutral  Congo  State,  there  is  truth  in  the  Frenchman's 
statement  that,  while  England  wanted  to  cut  Africa  from 
north  to  south,  and  Germany  from  east  to  west,  it  is  '  the 
German  knife  which  has  remained  in  the  fruit.'  We  have 
not  secured  a  British  line  from  Cairo  to  Cape  Town ;  still, 
we  have  certain  rights  of  traffic,  the  Congo  State  is  neutral, 
and  we  have  marked  out  a  highway  for  European  action 
against  the  slave  trade.  t 

In  1882  Italy  took  up  a  position  at  Assab  on  the  Red 
Sea,  and  in  1885  at  Massowah,  and  in  1890  she  assumed  a 
protectorate  over  Abyssinia ;  but  her  claim  on  Kassala  has 
not  been  recognised  by  England  (as  guardian  of  Egypt). 
This  Italian  movement  was  begun  by  a  steamship  company 
director,  who  bought  some  land  for  ^1800;    then  followed 

I  2 


Ii6  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.        [Ch.  vi. 

the  flag;  Egypt,  backed  by  England,  protested,  but  Italy 
persisted  :  she  has  won  a  territory  larger  than  Italy,  but 
costing  ,£800,000  a  year ;  and  all  this  has  taken  place  in  a 
decade. 

§5.  Scattered  Acquisitions. 
In  addition  to  the  extensive  territories  already  mentioned, 
some  important  additions  to  the  empire  have  been  made  in 
various  parts  of  the  world  since  1783. 

Malta. 

Malta  was  acquired  in  1801  from  Napoleon.  We  were  (by 
the  Treaty  of  Amiens)  to  give  it  back  to  the  Knights  of 
St.  John,  under  protection  of  Russia,  but  as  we  did  not  con- 
sider that  other  conditions  were  fulfilled,  and  we  consequently 
refused  to  retire,  our  refusal  became  the  occasion  of  the 
renewal  of  war  :  in  18 14  Malta  was  formally  annexed.  The 
military  government  of  the  island  was  exchanged  for  a 
constitution  of  the  representative  kind  in  1887. 

Aden. 

In  1838  we  added  Aden  as  another  post  on  our  route  to 
India,  and  placed  it  under  the  Government  of  Bombay. 

Mauritius. 

The  beautiful  and  fertile  island  of  Mauritius  was  taken 
from  France  in  18 10.  There  is  something  to  be  regretted  in 
our  having  permanently  deprived  our  neighbour  of  a  spot 
where  her  colonizing  efforts  had  been  rewarded  with  success, 
where  her  character  was  so  amiably  shown,  and  which  her 
genius  has  fixed,  like  the  island  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  firm  in 
the  regard  of  the  youth  of  both  countries  as  the  scene  of  the 
imperishable  idyll,  Paul  et  Virginie.  But  the  island — the 
Isle  of  France,  as  it  was  lovingly  named — was  used  as  a 
naval  resort,  and  even  more  injuriously  to  us  as  a  refuge 
for  privateers  and  pirates,  and  we  were  obliged  to  take  it 
and  to  keep  it.  It  is  still  French  in  character,  but  its 
prosperity  has  not  suffered  at  our  hands,  and  it  now  resem- 


Ch.vi.]  Scattered  Acquisitions.  117 

bles  our  own  peculiarly  English  island,  Barbados,  as  a  spot 
in  the  ocean  which  is  singularly  dense  in  population,  abounds 
in  wealth,  and  is  almost  ideal  in  contentment. 

The  Straits  Settlements. 
In  1819  we  purchased  the  island  of  Singapore,  in  the  Straits 
of  Malacca.  Malacca  itself  (Portuguese)  was  captured  from 
the  Dutch  ;  Penang  was  ceded  to  the  East  India  Company. 
Of  Singapore  we  made  a  free  port,  and  it  is  a  great  mart  for 
tropical  produce  on  the  one  hand,  and  British  and  Indian 
goods  on  the  other,  for  distribution  in  the  neighbouring  coun- 
tries. The  great  bulk  of  its  trade  has  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  Chinese  merchants. 

Hong  Kong. 

The  years  1841-2  saw  us  engaged  in  a  war  with  China  in 
connexion  with  the  opium  traffic.  This  war,  and  our  whole  con- 
duct in  dealing  with  the  production  of  opium  and  its  forcible 
importation  into  China,  many  Englishmen  regard  with  strong 
disapproval.  The  war  ended  in  an  easy  victory  :  we  exacted 
a  heavy  subsidy  for  expenses  incurred,  and  the  island  of  Hong 
Kong.  Of  this  we  made  another  free  port,  and  it  is  the  main 
centre  for  our  commerce  with  China  :  its  total  trade,  20  mil- 
lions sterling,  although  very  great,  is  not  more  than  half  that 
of  Singapore. 

Labuan  and  Sarawak. 

In  1847  we  acquired  the  island  of  Labuan,  near  Borneo. 
In  Borneo  itself  there  was  an  unusual  spectacle,  a  principality, 
Sarawak,  independent  of  our  dominion,  but  ruled  by  a  British 
subject,  '  Rajah  Brooke ' :  the  principality  came  formally 
under  our  'protection'  in  1888.  Through  the  British  North 
Borneo  Company  (chartered  in  1881)  our  influence  is  now 
supreme  over  the  north  and  north-west  of  this  great  island. 

A  Pause. 
For  some  years  it  was  a  matter  of  general  opinion  and 
consent  that  our  empire  should  be  no  farther  extended. 


n8  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension.         [Ch.vi. 

In  India,  indeed,  no  doubt  something  might  have  to  be  done 
for  India's  sake.  But  for  ourselves  it  was  considered  that 
the  era  of  territorial  expansion  should  stop.  Dominion  was 
becoming  unnecessary  to  merchants,  in  an  age  when  Free 
Trade  was  dawning,  and  it  was  becoming  incapable  of 
justification  in  the  light  of  the  principles  of  constitutional 
liberty  which  were  in  the  ascendant  in  the  minds  of  public 
men.  This  was  the  time  when  Sir  Henry  Barkly  tells  us 
that  as  he  started  out  for  a  Governorship  he  was  told 
in  the  very  Colonial  Office  itself  that  he  would  in  all  proba- 
bility be  one  of  the  last  to  be  sent  out. 

Both  political  parties  shared  in  the  opinion,  but  with  one 
it  was  due  to  political  principle,  in  the  other  to  acqui- 
escence in  the  inevitable.  During  its  prevalence  a  Con- 
servative Government  refused  to  take  up  the  newly-discovered 
Congo  region,  and  the  point  of  vantage  at  the  head  of  the 
Bight  of  Benin  where  the  Cameroon  Mountains  stand ;  and 
a  Liberal  Government  refused  to  undertake  a  protectorate 
over  Zanzibar,  and  reproached  Queensland  for  intervening 
when  other  nations  began  to  parcel  out  New  Guinea. 

The  Fresh  Departure  of  1880-90. 

The  movement  was  felt  first  on  the  continent,  and  the 
French  themselves  ascribe  it,  for  their  own  part,  to  a  desire  to 
turn  attention  away  from  the  yearning  to  recover  the  Rhine 
Provinces. 

The  Germans,  on  the  other  hand,  felt  that  they  had 
strength  to  spare  now  that  the  question  of  superiority  between 
France  and  themselves  was  decided  in  their  own  favour,  and 
they  were  naturally  jealous  of  England's  world-wide  empire, 
especially  as  our  colonies  attracted  and  absorbed  considerable 
numbers  of  German  subjects.  Italy  presently  began  also  to 
look  abroad  in  her  turn.  The  first  to  move,  however,  was 
neither  of  these,  but  an  entirely  new  candidate  for  imperial 
honours,  the  treaty-formed  State  of  Belgium.  The  newly- 
opened  Congo  river-basin  was  accepted  by  the  King  of  the 
Belgians  as  a  field  of  enterprise,  and  as  was  natural  from  him, 
a  neutral  and  international  character  was  given  to  a  society 


Ch.  vi.]  The  Fresh  Departure  of  1880-90.  119 

called  the  Congo  International  Association,  afterwards  recog- 
nised as  a  State,  with  Belgium  the  predominant  influence, 
and  France  the  reversionary  legatee.  This  was  in  1876. 
Our  acquisition  of  Cyprus  in  1878  was  due  to  'foreign'  policy  ; 
in  order  to  compensate  for  Russia's  acquisition  of  Batoum 
after  the  war  with  Turkey  we  established  ourselves  at  another 
strategic  point.  A  serious  step  was  taken  in  1881  when 
France  assumed  the  protection  of  Tunis,  giving  her  over 
600  miles  of  Mediterranean  shore :  Great  Britain  undertook 
to  restore  peace  and  order  in  Egypt  in  1882,  and  as  France 
left  us  to  settle  the  difficulty,  we  control  that  country  for 
the  present.  And  soon  a  real  scramble  for  unappropriated 
territories  almost  all  over  the  world  took  place.  In  Africa  we 
have  seen  what  took  place,  the  most  notable  action  being  the 
vigorous  movement  of  the  Germans  in  three  directions.  And 
as  Madagascar  was  brought  under  France  by  a  final  treaty  with 
its  potentates  in  1885  (recognised  by  Great  Britain  in  1890), 
and  as  the  Sultanates  of  the  Western  Soudan  are  parcelled  out, 
the  movement  has  issued,  in  less  than  ten  years,  in  leaving 
Africa  but  three  independent  kingdoms  of  any  note,  Morocco, 
Tripoli,  and  Dahomey,  except  that  Mahdism  has  won  back 
fromEgyptian  supervision  some  regions  of  the  Eastern  Soudan. 
The  rage  for  appropriation  has  extended  also  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  New  Guinea  was  coveted  by  Germany,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  assertiveness  of  Queensland  and  some  well- 
timed  and  resolute  objection  on  her  part  to  the  inaction  of 
the  Colonial  Office,  we  might  have  been  shut  out  and  have 
had  a  foreign  shore  stretching  opposite  the  coast  of  N.  E. 
Australia.  We  agreed,  however,  with  the  Germans  upon  a 
division,  and  the  Dutch  also  secured  a  share,  the  part  lying 
nearest  to  their  own  existing  possessions.  The  Americans 
have  too  much  influence  in  the  Sandwich  Isles  to  make  Euro- 
pean occupation  possible,  and  they  also  have  succeeded  in 
securing  a  quasi-international  position  for  Samoa  ;  but  most 
of  the  other  Pacific  Islands  are  either  'protected'  or  'pos- 
sessed '  by  European  powers.  The  important  group  of  Fiji 
came  under  our  protection  almost  in  spite  of  ourselves  in 
the  time  of  our  lethargy,  1874  :  the  reasons  why  the  Empire 


120  Reconstruction  and  Fresh  Extension. 

which  included  New  Zealand  and  Australia  should  undertake 
to  protect  the  islands  were  so  strong  that  the  dread  of 
aggrandizement  was  overcome,  and  Fiji  was  annexed.  The 
threatened  development  of  New  Caledonia  as  a  convict- 
refuge  at  the  very  gates  of  Australia  gave  rise  to  warm 
feelings  among  our  colonists,  and  the  French  have  consented 
to  be  careful,  though  without  formally  altering  their  plans. 

The  last  step  on  our  part  is  an  apparent  act  of  retrogression 
— the  cession  of  Heligoland  to  Germany.  To  lose  territory, 
said  Jules  Favre,  is  to  lose  self-respect.  This  instance 
proves  the  contrary,  for  no  thoughtful  Englishman  thinks  any 
the  less  of  the  British  Empire  in  consequence.  On  the  other 
hand,  scrupulousness  for  other  people's  opinions  has  been 
asserted  as  a  motive  for  international  action.  The  island  was 
not  British  but  German ;  and  we  have  shown  that  we  no 
longer  mean  by  '  Empire '  one  European  nation  ruling  over 
the  home-soil  of  another. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Government  of  the  Empire. 

The  British  Empire  exhibits  forms  and  methods  of  Govern- 
ment in  almost  exuberant  variety.  The  several  colonies  at 
different  periods  of  their  history  have  passed  through  various 
stages  of  Government,  and  in  1891  there  are  some  thirty  or 
forty  different  forms  operative  simultaneously  within  our 
empire  alone.  At  this  moment  there  are  regions  where 
Government  of  a  purely  despotic  kind  is  in  full  exercise,  and 
the  empire  includes  also  colonies  where  the  subordination  of 
the  Colonial  Government  has  become  so  slight  as  to  be  almost 
impalpable.  We  find  one  reflection  rising  in  our  minds, 
however,  when  we  survey  the  history  of  this  complicated 
variety,  namely,  that  we  are  looking  at  the  natural  growth  of 
an  organism,  which  in  its  development  has  taken  differing 
forms  in  adaptation  to  differing  needs.  No  cast-iron 
mechanism  is  before  us,  but  a  living  society,  exhibiting 
vital  principles  both  in  what  it  continues  to  retain  and  what  it 
drops  or  adds  by  way  of  alteration.  The  Briton  is  supposed  to 
be  of  rigid  character ;  but  in  Government  he  has  proved  him- 
self in  this  respect  to  be  the  most  elastic  of  all  Europeans. 

In  the  Government  relations  existing  within  an  empire, 
the  prominent  question  is  that  of  the  partition  of  power  as 
between  the  ce?itral  authority  and  the  new  co7nmunities.  A 
colony  must  be  to  some  extent  under  despotic  government. 
It  is  subject  to  an  outside  authority  in  which  it  has  itself  no 
share.  True,  the  colonies  of  France  are  excluded  from  this  ' 
category,  by  reason  of  their  having  representatives  in  the 
central  Legislature  of  the  French  Republic.  But  this  gives 
them  the  character  of  normal  French  Departments  ;  their 
inhabitants  are  citizens  of  the  Republic  in  the  fullest  sense 
of  the  term,   and  colonists  only  by  their  previous  history 


122  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

and  present  geographical  distance.  The  endeavour  so  to 
neglect  this  history  and  to  overlook  this  distance  is  a 
logical  outcome  of  Revolution  principles,  which  produces  no  ill 
effect  because  in  effective  working  it  is  ignored,  as  the  Legis- 
lature can  overrule  at  its  own  good  pleasure  the  minute 
fraction  of  itself  which  directly  represents  the  colonies, 
and  in  effect  their  presence  is  a  sign  of  good-will  and  a  main- 
tenance of  principle  rather  than  the  actual  means  of  securing 
good  government  for  the  islands  and  districts  concerned. 
They  contribute  advice,  of  course,  and  most  valuable  advice, 
but  they  do  not  control. 

Within  our  empire  no  such  thoroughgoing  abolition  of  the 
state  of  dependency  has  yet  been  achieved  or  attempted, 
although  it  is  a  favourite  topic  of  discussion  in  some  quarters. 
In  our  Crown  colonies  the  inhabitants  have  no  share  in  the 
control  of  their  own  affairs,  or  only  so  slight  a  share  as  to 
amount  but  to  an  official  manner  of  uttering  a  protest  or 
expressing  an  approval.  That  our  despotism  is  always  of 
the  benevolent  kind  we  may  certainly  claim  to  be  the  inten- 
tion if  not  the  fact :  our  success  varies  both  in  time  and 
place,  and  indeed  it  must  be  estimated  by  several  standards 
before  a  final  judgment  can  be  attained. 

The  student  of  the  philosophy  of  government  would  very 
probably  find  in  this  field  a  more  really  serviceable  series 
of  examples  of  Parental  Despotism  than  in  those  countries 
where  the  '  despot '  has  been  a  single  person.  An  individual 
ruler  interferes  with  government  in  a  way  which  is  more 
disturbing  than  is  the  case  when  a  nation  is  the  irrespon- 
sible authority ;  unless  it  is  a  mistake  for  us  to  think  that 
a  nation  is  unlikely  to  be  influenced  by  whims  and  caprices 
of  so  volatile  and  incongruous  a  character  as  those  which 
may  rise  in  the  breast  of  an  individual  ruler,  or  to  be  sub- 
ject to  such  violent  changes  of  disposition  as  are  found  in 
any  succession  of  personal  rulers.  Again,  in  the  consti- 
tutional history  of  the  colonies  the  working  of  cause  and 
effect  in  human  history  is  forcibly  displayed.  A  survey 
of  the  whole  of  the  European  colonies  in  respect  to  their 
governments  shows  how  far  from  being  either  accidental  in 


Ch.vii.]       The  Original  Methods  of  Government.  123 

nature  or  inexplicable  to  us  are  the  varieties  of  their 
constitutions.  There  is  perhaps  no  single  case  in  which  we 
may  not  fully  expect  to  be  able  to  put  our  finger  upon  the 
causes  of  the  variation  if  we  turn  to  the  history  of  the  case 
and  consider  it  in  its  known  circumstances  and  conditions. 

The  Original  Methods  of  Government. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  government  of  each  of  the  Euro- 
pean colonies  bore  from  the  outset  the  unmistakable  impress 
of  the  constitution  of  its  mother-country.  The  simple  idea 
of  a  colony  was  at  first  that  of  a  number  of  men  of  any  nation  ' 
who  had  gone  abroad ;  if  Spaniards,  they  were  Spaniards 
still :  and  the  territory  to  which  they  went  was,  by  one 
kind  of  title  or  another,  a  portion  of  the  soil  of  their  now 
extended  native-land.  Indeed,  even  if  they  went  to  live  within 
another  Christian  nation  there  was  an  endeavour  to  acquire 
a  separate  status,  if  not  always  a  separate  local  habita- 
tion. Treaties  were  entered  into  by  which  such  people  were 
withdrawn  from  the  authority  of  the  country  where  they 
sojourned  under  promise  of  obedience  to  their  own  Govern- 
ment, and  respect  for  the  laws  of  their  new  place  of  abode. 
More  complete,  however,  was  the  continuance  of  citizenship 
when  the  colonists  went  outside  Christendom,  to  regions  un- 
inhabited or  in  the  hands  of  'savages.'  There  full  allegiance 
was  retained  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  the  old  laws 
were  maintained,  unaffected  by  the  emigration.  In  the  case  of 
emigrants  from  countries  where  there  was  no  participation 
in  'government'  by  the  people  at  large,  there  was  little 
hankering  in  the  colonies  after  government,  as  distinct  from 
management ;  and  as  few  members  of  the  home  govern- 
ments—no princes  or  princesses,  and  but  few  people  of  rank 
or  high  office,  if  any — ever  emigrated,  men  accustomed  to  be 
ruled  easily  acquiesced  in  government  being  carried  on  for 
them  at  home,  or  by  delegates  despatched  for  the  very  purpose 
of  ruling  over  them.  But  in  cases  where  there  was  a  popular 
constitution  at  home  there  were  sure  to  be  among  the 
emigrants  some  who  had  the  franchise  or  had  held  some 
office ;  such  men  were  not  at  all  disposed  to  admit  that  they 


124  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

were  disfranchised  by  their  change.  In  short,  the  existence 
or  the  absence  of  a  constitution  in  the  home  countries 
determined  the  position  in  the  new  colonies. 

.    In  Spanish  Colonies. 

In  the  Spanish  colonies  the  arbitrary  monarchy  of  Spain 
was  reflected  in  this  way,  and  the  copy  was  fatally  close  to 
the  original.  The  Viceroys  at  Mexico,  Lima,  Bogota,  and 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  their  leading  officials,  received  their 
authority  from  their  monarch,  in  no  wise  from  the  colonists ; 
and  they  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Spaniards  going  out 
to  exercise  government  functions,  and  not  emigrants  or 
colonists  raised  up  from  among  their  brethren.  Of  170 
Viceroys  who  ruled  the  various  provinces  of  Spanish 
America  in  the  course  of  three  centuries,  only  4  were 
born  there ;  of  610  Captains-General  and  Governors,  only 
14.  Spaniards  were  sent  out  for  all  posts  of  profit, 
even  down  to  the  clerkships  in  the  Government  offices. 
This,  of  course,  was  nothing  less  than  a  caricature  of  the 
state  of  affairs  at  home,  for,  after  all,  if  Spanish  offices 
were  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  it  was  the  whole  Spanish  aristo- 
cracy, not  a  limited  class  that  was  privileged  ;  and  it  was 
their  own  aristocracy,  and  not  another.  But  when  the  colonies 
had  been  for  years  in  existence,  and  a  colonial  aristocracy 
had  grown  up,  it  was  a  gross  neglect  to  continue  to  resort  to 
Europe  for  all  officials,  and  yet  this  was  what  was  done.  The 
colonial  aristocracy  included  men  of  good  stock  —  rich, 
ennobled  even — but  they  were  not  considered  to  be  within 
the  select  circle  of  those  privileged  to  be  delegates  of  the 
royal  authority.  The  Spanish  governors  wielded  power  chiefly 
by  complicated  checks  and  intrigues  ;  keeping  a  gap  between 
the  whites  and  the  coloured  people,  for  example,  in  order  to 
play  off  one  class  against  the  other ;  using  the  clergy  as  spies 
over  the  laity,  the  poor  over  the  rich.  The  colonists  suffered 
lamentable  deterioration  from  this  short-sighted  policy.  They 
lived  in  a  sub-tropical  climate,  and  were  surrounded  by 
populations  of  inferior  mental  type,  and  thus  were  sure  to 
lose  ground  ;  and  yet,  in  addition  to  this,  they  had  to  bear  the 


Ch.  vi  I.  ]  Portuguese.  125 

loss  of  not  having  their  energies  evoked  by  having  to  under- 
take the  control  of  their  affairs.  All  this  led  straight  to  revo- 
lution ;  the  situation  was  instability  itself.  As  soon  as  the 
centre  of  the  Spanish  empire — the  sole  heart  of  authority — 
was  shaken  by  the  French  revolutionary  attacks  under 
Napoleon,  the  body  politic  was  ruined  as  then  constituted, 
and  a  reorganization  round  new  centres  became  a  necessity. 
In  the  entire  lack  of  preparation  for  this  reorganization  we 
find  the  cause  of  the  unstable  and  turbulent  political  histories 
of  the  republics  into  which  the  Spanish  dominion  in  America 
became  divided. 

Had  Spain  chosen  to  make  a  proper  use  of  the  colonial 
aristocracies,  with  here  and  there  princes  of  the  blood,  or 
grandees  of  the  first  class,  as  viceroys,  she  might  have  had  a 
number  of  dependent  kingdoms  that  would  not  only  have 
remained  within  her  empire,  but  have  been  stirred  with  all 
the  force  of  patriotism  to  assist  her  at  the  gloomy  time  when 
she  had  to  appeal  to  her  former  foe,  and  depend  upon  England 
to  lead  her  in  expelling  the  French  from  her  soil.  The 
disgrace  of  the  Armada  was  not  greater  than  the  degradation 
of  being  unable  to  maintain  her  own  integrity  against 
Napoleon  ;  and  this  might  have  been  spared  her,  if  loyal  aris- 
tocracies in  Mexico  and  Venezuela  had  been  in  existence  to 
furnish  her  with  both  money  and  men.  As  it  was,  the  rich 
classes  were  alienated,  and  looked  on  with  indifference,  and 
when  they  found  that  their  opportunity  was  come  they  broke 
loose,  and  after  a  wasteful  and  useless  struggle  on  the  part 
of  the  home  country  the  empire  was  broken  up.  The 
new  states  have  had  to  pass  through  a  severe  training  ;  and 
it  is  not  surprising  that  they  are  still  unsettled.  They  are 
all  now  republics  or  confederations  of  republics. 

Portuguese. 

The  Portuguese  system  offers  no  important  point  of  differ- 
ence. Its  one  great  colony,  Brazil,  followed  the  Spanish 
colonies  in  declaring  its  independence,  and  in  1890  it  cast 
off  the  last  fragment  of  sentimental  allegiance. 

The  other  Spanish  and  Portuguese  possessions  are  still 


126  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

governed  from  home ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  Cuba,  there 
is  no  reason  for  any  other  course  being  taken,  as  they  are 
not  emigrant  colonies  to  any  considerable  extent,  but  places 
where  a  handful  of  white  people  reside  among  masses  of 
people  of  colour ;  their  position  is  not  different,  in  short, 
from  that  of  our  own  Crown  colonies. 

Dutch. 
Holland  has  had  only  two  colonies  to  which  any  con- 
siderable number  of  Dutchmen  have  gone  out,  Java  and  the 
Cape ;  and  only  m  the  latter  has  there  been  opportunity  for 
local  government,  as  they  have  been  settlers,  rather  than 
merchants  or  planters,  in  no  other.  Even  here  they  had 
only  a  qualified  success,  as  we  have  seen,  and  a  revolution 
was  in  progress  at  the  time  when  the  British  took  possession 
of  the  colony.  In  the  brief  period  of  its  separate  existence 
the  Dutch  settlement  at  New  Amsterdam  (now  New  York) 
reproduced  very  closely  the  republican  type  of  government 
of  the  Netherlands.  The  Dutch  have  established  a  method 
of  rule  in  Java,  however,  which  well  deserves  the  attention 
of  Englishmen.  Its  principle  is  the  assignment  to  native 
chiefs  of  certain  functions  of  a  subordinate  kind;  some 
reference  to  it  will  be  found  in  Chapter  x. 

French. 
The  French  system  of  governing  their  colonies  has  received 
high  praise  in  many  quarters,  at  least  for  the  theory  which 
guided  it.  There  was  a  genuine  attempt  to  provide  a  method 
which  should  bring  to  bear  on  the  colonies  as  combined 
forces  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  home  statesmen,  and 
the  energy  and  local  knowledge  of  the  best  of  the  colonists 
themselves,  (i)  At  home  there  was  constituted  a  Council, 
comprised  of  twelve  officials  of  the  Government  and  twelve 
delegates  from  the  chief  commercial  cities  of  France ;  each 
colony  had  a  Governor  and  an  Intendant  sent  out  from  home, 
and  a  council  of  planters,  honoured  with  the  dignity  of 
being  denominated  a  Royal  Council.  (2)  Salaries  and  not  fees 
were  the  reward  of  the  functionaries.  (3)  The  cost  of 
government  was  defrayed  almost  wholly  from  home. 


Ch.  vii.]  French.  127 

From  this  thoughtful  and  liberal  plan  greater  results  might 
have  been  expected.  But  there  was  a  defect  beyond  the 
remedy  of  theory:  the  condition  of  the  Government  at  home 
was  hopeless:  when  for  'Government'  we  have  to  substitute 
'  Court '  we  can  see  how  it  came  that  the  fortunes  of  the  colo- 
nies were  hampered,  and  the  well- laid  scheme  rendered  use- 
less. The  best  posts  in  the  colonies  were  bestowed  upon  Court 
favourites  who  for  any  private  reason  desired  to  go  for  a  time 
into  exile,  and  the  infant  colonies  derived  no  assistance  from 
them ;  while  at  the  same  time  they  were  not  encouraged,  or, 
indeed,  permitted,  to  manage  their  own  affairs  in  their  own 
way,  even  if  the  idea  of  such  a  thing  had  occurred  to  their 
patriotic  French  minds.  The  high  mark  of  their  prosperity 
was  reached  just  before  the  Revolution.  Hayti  was  then  at  the 
very  climax  of  wealth-producing  activity.  But  what  a  farther 
trial  would  have  effected  we  have  no  opportunity  of  knowing, 
for  the  bewildered  white  people,  who  had  become  citizens 
of  a  free,  equal,  and  fraternal  Republic,  endeavoured  to 
retain  the  negroes  in  subjection,  but  were  overborne; 
and,  through  terrific  scenes  of  fire  and  blood,  Toussaint 
l'Ouverture—  as  fine  a  hero  as  a  nationality  need  de- 
sire— led  his  black  brethren  to  an  independence  which 
was  presently  to  take  form  in  a  thoroughly-established 
Negro  Republic. 

As  the  absorption  of  France  in  continental  wars  led  to  her 
being  deprived  by  Great  Britain  of  her  possessions  in  America 
and  India,  she  has  had  no  further  opportunity  of  work- 
ing out  her  methods  on  a  large  scale.  Her  islands  of  Mar- 
tinique, Guadeloupe,  and  Reunion  are  treated  as  parts  of 
the  soil  of  France,  and  the  people  are  flourishing  and  con- 
tented. Her  other  dominions  are  too  full  of  natives  to  allow 
of  any  government  other  than  parental.  Representation  by 
Senators  and  Deputies  is  still  in  force,  and  the  Council  for 
the  Colonies  is  again  being  remodelled  (1891),  but  on 
the  old  lines.  Algeria  has  a  distinctly  military  character, 
not  having  attracted  immigration  from  France  to  the  extent 
that  was  hoped.  The  army  of  occupation  is  50,000  strong, 
and  the  colony  is  a  heavy  charge  on  the  national  revenue. 


128  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

In  British  Colonies. 

Plenty  of  good  land,  and  liberty  to  ?nanage  their  own 
affairs,  are  enumerated  by  Adam  Smith  as  the  chief  causes  of 
prosperity  in  all  new  colonies.  So  far  as  \  good  land '  is  con- 
cerned, England  was  not,  at  first,  as  he  says,  so  fortunate 
as  Spain  and  Portugal,  or  even  as  France ;  but  he  con- 
sidered that  out  political  institutions  were  more  favourable 
than  those  of  any  of  the  other  three  nations  to  the  im- 
provement and  cultivation  of  such  land  as  we  had,  and 
that  for  that  reason  there  were  no  colonies  in  his  day 
in  so  prosperous  a  condition  as  the  English  settlements 
in  America. 

The  fundamental  idea  that  substantial  heads  of  families 
have  a  right  to  be  regarded  as  units  of  the  State  was  carried 
over  the  seas  by  the  groups  of  emigrating  Englishmen  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  upon  it  rose  colonies  in  which,  as 
}  Adam  Smith  says,  '  the  liberty  to  manage  their  own  affairs 
yin  their  own  way  '  was  complete  in  everything  except  foreign 
^  trade,  and  was  in  every  respect  equal  to  that  of  their 
fellow-citizens  at  home,  and  secured  in  the  same  manner, 
namely,  by  assemblies  of  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
The  early  charters  had,  indeed,  an  aristocratic  character,  and 
there  was  something  of  a  monarchical  impress  upon  them  as 
^  well.  The  land  was  often  granted  in  a  mass  to  a  company 
or  a  person  at  home,  and  a  share  in  government,  either 
directly  or  through  delegates,  went  with  it.  But  this  was  not 
in  any  way  directed  against  the  principle  of  liberty.  In  order 
to  start  new  colonies  men  of  influence  and  wealth  were  indis- 
pensable, and  it  was  only  just  and  reasonable  that  they 
should  have  a  voice  in  the  management  of  affairs.  In  some 
of  the  colonies  the  settlers  were  merely  auxiliaries  and 
dependents  working  with  other  men's  capital,  and  therefore 
not  entitled  to  independence.  In  such  colonies  as  were 
founded  by  the  wealth  of  the  settlers  themselves,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, for  example,  no  such  subordination  ever  had  place  ; 
even  the  Governor  was  elected  by  the  people  :  in  the  others, 
as  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  it  continued  until  the  settlers 


Ch.  vii.]  Crises.  129 

became  their  own  masters  in  industry,  and  worked  with  their 
own  capital. 

For  these  reasons  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  as  early 
as  161 9  a  House  of  Assembly  'broke  out'  in  the  colony  of 
Virginia,  then  just  twelve  years  old.  In  that  Assembly  we 
see  the  jfirst-dom  child  of  the  British  Parliament,  the  eldest 
brother,  so  to  speak,  of  the  legislatures  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  English  colonies  of  to-day,  This  Assembly  was 
composed  of  a  council  and  a  body  of  twenty-two  repre- 
sentatives from  the  eleven  plantations,  elected  by  the  free- 
holders, imposing  taxes  and  passing  laws,  meeting  either 
annually  or  at  frequent  intervals. 

In  the  various  colonies  there  was  a  period  of  struggle 
against  the  privileges  conferred  by  the  original  charters ;  but 
there  could  be  only  one  issue :  gradually  the  proprietors 
withdrew  or  were  bought  out  as  the  diminution  of  their 
commercial  interest  rendered  their  control  an  unjustifiable 
interference,  and  eventually  in  some  of  them  even  the  Crown 
had  no  delegates,  and  after  the  revolution  of  1688  it  had,, 
very  limited  authority  in  any.  Still,  when  the  influence  of* 
the  Crown,  after  1649,  had  almost  entirely  changed  into  that 
of  Crown  and  Parliament,  authority  by  Acts  of  Parliament 
was  asserted  where  the  mother-country  thought  it  essential 
to  her  own  interests  to  do  so ;  this  was  almost  exclusively 
in  matters  of  trade.  The  Navigation  Acts  were  in  force  in 
America,  and  the  various  regulations  constituting  the  mono- 
poly or  colonial  system  were  imposed  by  imperial  authority 
throughout  the  colonies. 

Crises. 

Two  crises  occurred  in  the  history  of  Colonial  Govern- 
ment relations : — 

(i)  When  the  legislatures  of  the  thirteen  colonies  in  North 
America  claimed  the  sole  right  of  taxation,  even  for  imperial 
purposes,  and  preferred  the  severance  of  all  political  ties  to 
the  surrender  of  this  right.  This  has  been  dealt  with  in  its 
place  in  Chapter  iv. 

(ii)  When  in  Canada  the  unreformed  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  persisted  in  endeavours  to  rule  the  colony  in  matters 

K 


130  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

of  social  and  even  domestic  character,  such  as  had  never 
been  controlled  in  the  Atlantic  settlements.  Canada  was  a 
conquered  possession,  not  a  settlement,  it  is  true;  but  the 
attempt  to  treat  it  as  a  conquest  nearly  ended  in  another 
catastrophe.  What  eventually  occurred,  however,  was  the 
establishment  of  a  relationship  between  that  colony  and  Great 
Britain  which  has  proved  to  be  the  type  for  all  subsequent 
colonies  in  which  the  English  people  are  settled  in  numbers 
sufficient  to  form  self-governing  communities. 

The  First  Modern  Colonial  Constitution. 

Canada  was  in  1763  in  character  as  well  as  in  history  a 
conquered  country  :  its  population  of  65,000  was  mostly 
French.  The  introduction^  of  British  rule  was  so  great  a 
benefit  that  the  colonists  never  really  faltered  in  their  pre- 
ference for  the  new  regime.  Feudal  rights  which  had  been 
brought  over  the  Atlantic  were  abolished,  and  many  a  burden- 
some hindrance  to  colonial  industry  disappeared  with  them, 
after  the  enquiry  in  France  into  the  conduct  of  the  officials 
had  led  another  colonial  administrator  to  the  Bastille,  but 
in  this  case  with  a  fate  that  was  deserved.  The  inability 
of  the  British  Government  to  allow  an  oath  of  allegiance 
for  members  of  the  local  Government  which  the  French 
Canadians  could  in  conscience  take  produced  the  chief 
difficulty.  As  at  that  time  Ireland  was  under  a  Protestant 
Parliament  and  Romanists  in  England  were  disfranchised, 
how  else  could  \ve  have  acted  in  Canada?  Lord  North's 
Quebec  Act  of  1774  made  things  worse,  as  it  altered  what 
was  good,  reviving  the  old  French  laws,  which  the  inhabitants 
did  not  desire,  and  left  unaltered  what  they  wished  to  see 
changed,  their  exclusion  from  participation  in  the  government. 
Chatham  denounced  this  Act ;  and  its  enactment  alarmed 
the  colonists  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  showed  what  might  be 
feared.  In  the  war  of  Secession  the  Canadians  were  divided 
in  sympathy :  a  sagacious  Governor,  Sir  Guy  Carleton, 
afterwards  Lord  Dorchester,  saved  the  colony,  after  all 
had  been  lost  except  Quebec  itself.  After  the  secession  of 
their  southern  neighbours,  the  Canadians  again  asked  for  a 


Ch.vii.]  Utilitarian  Doctrine  in  Practice.  131 

House  of  Assembly,  and  also  asked  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act.  This  latter  request  was  granted,  but  it 
was  not  until  1 791  that  the  Quebec  Act  was  repealed,  and  re- 
presentative Assemblies  granted.  At  that  time  the  colony  was 
divided  into  two  provinces,  Upper  Canada,  mainly  British, 
and  Lower  Canada,  mainly  French,  each  with  a  Lieutenant- 
Governor  and  a  legislature.  Very  liberal  powers  were 
granted  ;  no  taxation  was  claimed  by  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
except  in  connexion  with  commerce.  The  first  proceeding  of 
the  legislature  of  Upper  Canada  was  to  declare  English  law  of 
property,  civil  right,  and  trial  by  jury  to  be  law  of  the  province, 
and  to  abolish  slavery.  This  would  appear  to  be  a  very  fair 
treatment,  but  it  did  not  satisfy  Charles  James  Fox,  who, 
during  the  passing  of  this  constitutional  Act,  anticipated  the 
policy  of  the  Manchester  School  of  fifty  years  later  by 
urging  that  the  colonies  should  govern  themselves  altogether. 
And  the  event  proved  that  the  colonists  were  only  partially 
satisfied.  The  official  element — the  Executive  department  of 
government — remained  responsible  to  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment, and  unfortunately  did  not  lead  the  Canadians  to  entire 
contentment  and  tranquillity.  There  was,  however,  satisfac- 
tion sufficient  to  keep  even  the  French  province  loyal  during 
the  great  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  although  it 
must  have  been  with  strangely  mixed  feelings  that  a  citizen 
of  Quebec  heard  the  news  of  victories  which  shattered  the 
French  navy  and  drove  the  French  armies  out  of  Spain  ;  and 
they  were  also  rendered  proof  against  the  enticements  of  the 
United  States  to  join  them  in  their  war  against  us  in  1812-15. 
Indeed,  in  this  last  struggle  the  Canadians  maintained  their 
own  cause  along  their  borders  with  a  valiant  and  capable 
militia. 

Utilitarian  Doctrine  in  Practice. 

By  1837,  however,  the  discontent  had  grown  into  disaffec- 
tion, and  in  Lower  Canada  there  was  open  rebellion.  The 
settlement  of  the  difficulty  was  effected  by  means  not  very 
commonly  in  high  favour.  For  once  systematic  thought  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  politics.  That  group  of  thinkers, 
writers,  and  public  men,  hard-headed  and  clear-minded,  if 
K  2 


132  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

not  exactly  profoundly  philosophical,  who  are  best  described 
as  the  Benthamite  school — James  and  John  Mill,  the  Austins, 
George  Grote,  Charles  Buller,  and  others — had  their  oppor- 
tunity. A  young  peer  of  considerable  promise,  Lord  Durham, 
was  sent  out  as  Governor  in  1838  ;  he  issued  a  famous 
report,  due  to  the  pen  of  Charles  Buller,  in  which  the  Radical 
philosophers'  principles  were  vigorously  applied.  Lord 
Durham  himself  made  some  mistakes  which  caused  his 
recall  and  led  to  his  premature  death  ;  but  his  successor 
was  of  the  same  mind,  and  in_i84Q  Parliament  was  persuaded 
to  give  effect  to  the  proposals  macTe  in  the  report.  The 
colony  was  united  again,  with  a  single  Legislature,  to 
meet  alternately  at  Quebec  and  Toronto;  but  the  main 
point  was  that  the  Executive  branch  of  government  was 
brought  under  the  control  of  the  colonists.  The  principle  that 
all  officials  must  be  responsible  to  the  Legislature,  which  had 
long  been  the  keystone  of  the  British  constitution,  at  once 
gave  self-government  to  Canada,  and  ended  the  effective 
control  of  the  mother-country.  The  Governor  alone  was 
excepted,  and  for  a  time  he  retained  the  appointment  of  some 
officials ;  but  in  1845  Governor  Metcalfe  yielded  this  point 
also,  and  the  Governor  alone  represented  the  suzerainty  of 
Britain.  The  official  regulation  (No.  57  of  Rules  and  Regu- 
lations) now  runs  thus  :  '  In  colonies  possessing  what  is  called 
Responsible  Government,  the  Governor  is  empowered  by  his 
Instructions  to  appoint  and  remove  Members  of  the  Executive 
Council,  it  being  understood  that  Councillors  who  have  lost 
the  confidence  of  the  local  Legislature  will  tender  their  resig- 
nation to  the  Governor,  or  discontinue  the  practical  exercise 
of  their  functions,  in  analogy  with  the  usage  prevailing  in  the 
United  Kingdom.'  In  certain  matters  he  refers  home  for 
instructions  whether  or  not  to  veto  measures  of  the  colonial 
Legislature,  but  in  all  that  are  of  purely  local  effect  he  is 
bound  to  take  the  advice  of  his  Cabinet,  which  is  entirely 
dependent  upon  the  colonial  Legislature.  The  obstructive 
effect  of  the  previous  condition  of  things  was  proved  by 
the  increase  of  vigour  and  enterprise  which  ensued  imme- 
diately upon  the  change.     Various  restrictions  on  commerce 


Ch.vii.]  Utilitarian  Doctrine  in  Practice.  133 

were    removed ;    municipal    bodies    were   created    for   the 
towns ;   the  railway  enterprise  of  England  was  emulated ; 
education  was  reorganized ;  and  the  legal  code  was  consoli- 
dated.    The  year  1841  is  therefore  the  year  of  the  inaugural 
tion  of  modern  Colonial  Government. 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  constitution  adopted  is 
of  the  old  British  form.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that 
it  is  assumed  that  any  legal  or  political  procedure  not 
specifically  provided  for  will  be  the  same  as  in  England. 
It  has  been  decided  by  the  highest  Law  Court  that  the 
Upper  House  of  Queensland — and  the  same  applies  to 
Canada — has  not  equal  rights  with  the  Lower  House  be- 
cause the  Upper  House  in  England  has  not.  The  constitu- 
tion is  not  of  the  form  which  the  Canadians  saw  in 
operation  in  the  United  States.  There  the  Executive  and  the 
Legislature  are  kept  quite  distinct.  Both  are  elected  by  the 
people,  but  independently  of  one  another,  the  Executive  being 
elected  once  in  every  four  years,  and  having  power  for  that 
period  whatever  amount  of  dissatisfaction  may  arise  on 
the  part  of  the  Legislature.  But  in  Canada  the  English 
constitution  has  been  transplanted ;  the  Ministry  is  a 
committee  of  the  Legislature.  The  success  of  this  first 
experiment  practically  decided  which  of  the  two  forms  of 
Representative  Government  evolved  by  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  should  be  generally  adopted  in  our  colonies,  and  the 
solution  has  been  accepted  by  such  Latin  nations  as  France 
and  Italy  \ 

1  The  ground  of  Canadian  preference  for  their  present  political 
position  to  incorporation  with  the  United  States  was  thus  analysed 
by  Lord  Dufferin  at  Toronto  in  1874. 

Canada  has  its  Executive  and  its  Legislature  bound  together, 

and  so  is  able  to  follow  out  English  habit  and  practice. 
Canada  has  in  its  Governor- General  a  means  of  preventing  dead- 
locks between  branches  of  the  Legislature,  or  between  local 
and  central  authority. 
Canada  has  its  Judiciary  appointed,  as  in  all  countries  except 
the  U.  S.  A.,  by  the  Government,  not  by  incompetent  popular 
election. 
Canada  has   its  Civil  Service  permanent,  not   changing  with 

party  successes. 
Canada  has  its  electoral  system,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  pure. 


134  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 


Extension  of  Kesponsible  Government. 

The  granting  of  Responsible  Government  to  our  other 
colonies  has,  so  far,  extended  to  the  following  nine — New- 
foundland, New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  South  Australia, 
Queensland,  Tasmania,  New  Zealand,  Cape  Colony,  and  (in 
1890)  Western  Australia.  In  all  of  these  the  Governor  is 
the  only  link  between  the  Home  Government  and  the  Colo- 
nial, and  in  all  of  them  his  powers  are  limited  to  the  exercise 
of  the  veto.  Even  this  is  circumscribed.  It  is  tacitly  under- 
stood that  the  veto  will  be  resorted  to  only  when  the  foreign 
relations  of  the  empire  are  affected,  or  when  some  Act  is 
passed  which  the  Secretary  of  State  decides  to  be  incom- 
patible with  existent  Imperial  legislation.  For  example, 
even  in  Canada,  which  has  a  certain  treaty  power,  no  Treaty 
of  Commerce  which  placed  French  goods  at  a  disadvantage 
relatively  to  those  of  other  countries  would  be  allowed  on  the 
first  ground  ;  none  which  put  English  goods  at  a  disad- 
vantage, on  the  second.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  invoke 
the  veto  in  other  cases,  notably  when  there  was  a  deadlock 
in  Victoria  between  the  Upper  and  Lower  Houses,  but 
Parliament  decided  that  the  colonists  must  settle  the  matter 
for  themselves.  It  was  in  the  course  of  a  debate  during 
this  conflict  that  the  Attorney- General  of  the  colony, 
speaking  in  the  Lower  House,  alluded  to  the  possibility  of 
inviting  the  Governor  to  embark  on  an  Imperial  man-of-war 
in  the  harbour  if  he  should  attempt  to  take  the  settlement  of 
the  dispute  out  of  the  hands  of  the  colonists.  On  the 
other  hand  Lord  Dufferin  said  in  a  speech  in  British 
Columbia  in  1876  that  had  Mr.  Mackenzie,  then  the 
Premier  of  Canada,  been  really  guilty  of  charges  levelled 
against  him  of  surreptitiously  defeating  a  measure  of  his 
own,  either  he  would  by  the  Govern  or- General's  intervention 
have  ceased  to  be  Premier,  or  he  (Lord  Dufferin)  would  have 
left  the  country.  He  points  out  how  the  Governor  is  a  first- 
rate  arbitrator,  and  secures  a  more  really  democratic  govern- 
ment than  that  of  the  United  States. 


Ch.vii.]      Extension  of  Responsible  Government.  135 

The  official  statements  are  thus  worded  1 : — 

'  Article  54.  In  Colonies  possessing  Representative  Assem- 
blies Laws  purport  to  be  made  by  the  Queen,  or  by  the 
Governor  on  Her  Majesty's  behalf,  or  sometimes  by  the 
Governor  alone  (omitting  any  express  reference  to  Her 
Majesty),  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Council  and 
Assembly.  They  are  almost  invariably  designated  as  Acts. 
In  Colonies  not  having  such  Assemblies,  Laws  are  designated 
Ordinances,  and  purport  to  be  made  by  the  Governor  with 
the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Legislative  Council.' 

'  Article  48.  In  every  Colony  the  Governor  has  authority 
either  to  give  or  to  withhold  his  assent  to  laws  passed  by 
the  other  branches  or  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  until 
that  assent  is  given  no  such  law  is  valid  or  binding.' 

1  Article  50.  Every  law  which  has  received  the  Governor's 
assent  (unless  it  contains  a  suspending  clause  specially 
reserving  it  for  Her  Majesty's  confirmation)  comes  into 
operation  immediately  or  at  the  time  specified  in  the  Law 
itself.  But  the  Crown  retains  power  to.  disallow  the  Law ; 
and  if  such  power  be  exercised  at  any  time  afterwards,  the 
Law  ceases  to  have  operation  from  the  date  at  which  such 
disallowance  is  published  in  the  Colony.' 

Legislation  on  social  and  even  moral  questions  is  com- 
pletely under  local  control.  Not  only  is  marriage  with  a 
deceased  wife's  sister  allowed  by  the  Crown,  but  the  idea  of 
intervention  was  abandoned — in  spite  of  some  appeals  by 
powerful  local  bodies — when  Divorce  Bills  greatly  extending 
facilities  for  divorce  were  recently  passed  in  Victoria  and 
another  in  New  South  Wales.  Even  trade,  which  has  so 
often  been  the  chief  object  of  British  policy,  has  been  handed 
over  to  the  control  of  the  colonies. 

The  constitutions  of  the  colonies  are  frankly  democratic  in 
character.  The  franchise  is  manhood  suffrage  in  some,  house- 
hold suffrage  in  others.  The  position  of  the  Cape  Colony 
is  very  anomalous :    there   the   native   majority  must    be 

1  Rules  and  Regulations  of  the  Colonial  Service,  compiled  by 
the  Secretary  of  State's  directions,  Colonial  Office  List,  published 
annually. 


136  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

excluded,  and  an  income  of  ^50  from  property  or  salary 
or  wages  is  the  basis,  giving  86,000  electors  where  manhood 
suffrage  would  give  about  a  quarter  of  a  million.  It  is  with 
the  object  of  preventing-  the  occasion  for  so  oligarchical  a 
constitution  that  in  one  colony,  Queensland,  a  strong  party 
vehemently  protests  against  the  importation  of  coolie  labour 
into  the  colony.  But  on  one  point  conservative  feeling 
seems  to  be  strong.  In  no  colony  is  a  women's  franchise  in 
force,  except  for  municipal  and  other  local  boards. 

Voting  is  by  ballot :  Parliaments  are  dissolved  either  every 
five  years  or  every  three.  In  some  colonies  members  of 
Parliament  receive  a  moderate  stipend  in  order  to  prevent 
the  monopoly  of  representation  by  men  of  property. 

Law. 

The  whole  province  of  Law  in  both  the  Personal  and  the 
Property  departments  is  within  colonial  control.  There  is, 
indeed,  an  appeal  from  the  Supreme  Court  in  each  colony 
to  the  Queen  in  Council,  i.e.  to  the  Queen  as  advised  by 
certain  paid  members  of  a  '  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council ' ;  but  even  here  it  is  not  an  appeal  to  English  law. 
Colonial  law  is  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  the  law  of 
Scotland,  and  the  Judicial  Committee  has  only  to  decide  in 
any  case  what  the  law  of  the  colony  is  in  reference  to  the 
matter  in  dispute.  The  affairs  of  Quebec  and  Mauritius  are 
decided  by  the  old  French  law,  of  Guiana  by  the  Dutch  law, 
of  the  Straits  Settlements  by  the  Koran,  unless  there  are 
distinct  colonial  enactments  bearing  on  the  case. 

Defence. 

For  defence  against  foreign  nations  the  colonies  have  been 
accustomed  to  depend  mainly  upon  the  forces  and  the  ex- 
chequer of  Great  Britain  ;  but  now  they  are  beginning  to 
provide  for  their  own  protection  by  adding  to  their  militia 
some  small  regular  forces,  and  by  building  a  few  ships  and 
some  fortifications.  The  expenses  of  Government  are  no 
longer  borne  by  Great  Britain  :  even  the  Governor  and  his 


Ch.vii.]  Semi- Responsible  Governments.  137 

personal  staff  are  paid  out  of  the  colonial  exchequer.  On 
the  other  hand  we  exact  no  contributions  whatever  from  them 
for  the  protection  which  they  continue  to  enjoy,  from  our  navy 
especially,  nor  any  contribution  towards  the  heavy  annual 
charges  in  the  shape  of  interest  on  our  National  Debt, 
although  without  that  debt  the  territories  of  all  of  them 
possibly — of  some  of  them  very  probably — might  now  be  in 
the  hands  of  the  French  or  Germans.  The  organization  of 
Imperial  defence  was  one  of  the  chief  matters  taken  in 
hand  at  the  Imperial  Conference  in  London  in  1887,  and 
certain  measures  were  agreed  upon  \ 

Semi- Re  sponsible  Governments. 

If  all  our  colonies  were  of  the  simple  type  of  those 
which  enjoy  Responsible  Government  the  constitutions  might 
be  identical  throughout.  But  a  fresh  feature  appears  in  most 
of  them,  namely,  the  presence  within  the  colonies  of  people 
of  other  races  who  were  already  in  possession  when  we  went 
there.  Where  these  are  European  no  overpowering  difficulty 
has  been  felt :  in  Canada  all  that  remains  is  slight  occasional 
friction  ;  and  although  at  the  Cape  the  friction  amounts  to 
irritation  and  frequent  disturbance  between  the  Dutch  and 
British  elements,  there  is  every  prospect  that  harmony  will 
eventually  be  attained.  But  where  there  is  a  large  number 
of  inhabitants  not  of  European  race  who  bear  an  over- 
whelming proportion  to  the  white  settlers  it  has  not  been 
a  part  of  our  policy  to  hand  over  a  colony  either  to  the 
narrow  circle  of  the  whites  or  to  impose  a  franchise  which 
should  include  natives  as  well  as  white  people.  Some 
modus  vivendi  must  be  found,  and  it  is  in  this  situation 
especially  that  the  existence  of  an  Imperial  authority 
outside  the  colony  is  of  the  utmost  value.  In  West 
Australia  40,000  white  people  may  have  Responsible 
Government  because  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  are  so  few 

1  The  annual  expenditure  for  defence  of  the  empire,  as  stated  by 
Sir  C.  Dilke  before  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute,  in  May,  1890,  is 
£60,000,000 :  divided  into — Great  Britain,  £38,000,000 ;  India, 
£20,000,000;  the  Colonies, £2,000,000. 


138  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vii. 

in  number  as  to  be  a  negligable  quantity  ;  but  in  Natal 
the  40,000  Europeans  are  in  a  different  position,  with  360,000 
Zulus  and  other  Africans  and  30,000  coolies  from  India 
and  China  around  them.  Accordingly  the  sagacity  of  our 
statesmen  has  produced  a  modified  form  of  government 
which  is  denominated  'representative'  in  the  official  docu- 
ments of  the  Colonial  Office !.  The  general  principle 
is  that  legislation  should  be  largely  in  the  hands  of  the 
colonists,  but  administration  directed  from  home  through 
a  Governor  advised  by  officials  of  his  own  appointment. 
Legislation  is  not  left  freely  in  the  hands  of  the  colonists,  as 
the  Governor's  veto  is  much  more  freely  used  than  in  the 
responsibly-governed  colonies.  In  Barbados  we  see  a  good 
type  of  government  of  this  intermediate  or  representative 
class.  The  Governor,  the  Chief  Justice,  the  Attorney- General, 
the  Solicitor- General,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  the  Auditor- 
General,  and  the  Inspector- General  of  Police  are  appointed  by 
the  Secretary  of  State  at  home.  Of  these  seven  chief  officials, 
four  are  Englishmen  sent  out,  three  are  old  residents  in  the 
colony.  There  is  a  Legislative  Council  (or  Upper  House) 
to  which  members  are  nominated  by  the  Governor  'during 
pleasure,'  and  an  Assembly  to  which  members  are  elected 
by  the  eleven  'parishes'  of  the  island.  The  Colonial 
Treasurer  is  the  highest  official  whom  the  colonists, 
through  their  Assembly,  appoint  :  this  was  a  wise  conces- 

1  It  is  not  necessary  to  attribute  very  much  of  the  organization  to 
political  sagacity :  (i)  The  Crown  colonies  were  most  of  them  con- 
quests, and  the  early  character  of  their  government  was  coloured  by 
their  origin,  being  often  of  a  military  type ;  and  (ii)  there  was  not 
within  the  colonies  a  sufficient  number  of  intelligent  and  disinterested 
persons  from  whom  members  of  a  Government  could  be  chosen.  The 
exercise  of  government  from  home  was  therefore  quite  natural ;  where 
sagacity  has  been  shown  has  been  in  the  modifications  introduced  in 
response  to  differences  in  the  circumstances  of  the  several  colonies,  and 
to  the  changes  taking  place  as  progress  went  on.  At  the  Cape,  for 
example,  there  is  a  Responsible  Government,  although  it  is  a  conquest 
or  cession  :  at  Barbados  there  is  not,  although  it  is  an  original  settle- 
ment of  our  own.  In  one  case  the  situation  has  led  to  a  special 
treatment  in  the  direction  of  liberty,  in  the  other  in  the  direction  of 
parentalism. 


Ch.vii.]  Crown  Colonies.  139 

sion  to  the  radical  objection  of  English  people  to  relinquish 
control  of  money-matters.  The  Executive  consists  of  an 
Executive  Committee,  chiefly  official,  and  so  far  responsible 
to  the  Imperial  Government,  but  partly  representative  of  the 
Assembly:  the  Governor,  the  Officer  commanding  the  troops, 
the  Colonial  Secretary,  the  Attorney- General,  one  nomi- 
nated member,  one  member  of  the  Legislative  Council, 
and  four  members  of  Assembly,  all  of  these  chosen  by  the 
Governor.  All  money-votes  and  all  Government  measures 
are  initiated  by  this  Committee.  The  veto  is  frequently 
employed,  and  the  hand  of  the  Imperial  Government  is 
constantly  felt.  The  Assembly,  though  called  represen- 
tative, is  not  based  on  either  household  or  manhood 
suffrage ;  a  limit  of  property  is  placed  just  above  the  point 
which  would  admit  the  day-labourers  who  form  the 
numerical  majority  of  the  population.  How  an  agitation  for 
manhood  suffrage  would  be  dealt  with  if  pressed  upon  the 
British  Parliament  or  British  Political  Associations  it  is  not 
easy  to  forecast.  It  would  have  some  educational  effect,  as 
it  would  put  before  the  English  people  the  practical  question 
whether  (1)  all  men  are  equally  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  govern- 
ment— in  which  case  where  would  the  18,000  white  people 
of  Barbados  be  with  160,000  as  the  coloured  party? — or 
(2)  whether  some  solid  advantage  may  not  be  gained  by 
human  beings  from  being  governed  thoughtfully  and  with 
sincere  intention  to  secure  the  general  welfare  of  the 
community. 

In  this  class  of  Representative  governments  each  separate\ 
colony  has  some  difference  of  detail,  but  the  main  features  \ 
are   the   same ;    they  are    Barbados,    Bahamas,     Leeward  I 
Islands,  Windward  Islands,  British  Guiana,  Bermuda,  Malta,  1 
and  Natal.  / 

Crown  Colonies. 

The  third  class  consists  of  the  Crown  Colonies.  In  these 
the  principle  of  Imperial  control  is  resolutely  carried  out : 
there  is  no  pretence  of  popular  government,  but  an  open 
declaration  that  the  white  inhabitants  are  not  in  the  eyes  of 


140  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

Great  Britain  the  natural  rulers.  The  great  military  and 
naval  stations,  of  course,  fall  at  once  into  this  category  ; 
except  Malta,  which  has  lately  received  a  constitution 
(1887).  The  welfare  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  possessions 
is  subordinate  to  the  strategic  or  commercial  purpose  for 
which  they  are  held.  In  this  category  we  place  Gibraltar, 
Aden,  Singapore,  Labuan,  Hong  Kong,  The  Falklands,  St. 
Helena. 

In  other  colonies  the  welfare  of  the  native  inhabitants  in 
harmony  with  that  of  the  British  residents  is  the  purpose  of  our 
rule,  and  we  have  therefore  to  undertake  the  responsibility  of 
governing  them.  The  most  important  are  Ceylon,  Jamaica, 
Trinidad,  Honduras,  Mauritius,  Sierra  Leone,  Gold  Coast,  La- 
gos, and  Fiji.  In  a  Crown  colony  the  Governor  and  his  officials 
govern  ;  some  provision  for  advice  from  residents  is  usual  by 
means  of  the  introduction  of  a  few  residents  or  unofficial 
members  into  his  council,  but  these  are  appointed  by  the 
Governor  himself  or  by  the  Secretary  of  State  on  his 
recommendation,  and  he  is  not  bound  to  take  their  advice. 
\  Few  posts  exist  in  modern  times  where  a  man  of  adminis- 
trative ability  can  be  more  effective  than  as  Governor  of  a 
Crown  colony.  He  can  have  ample  scope  for  his  talents  in 
these  important  communities,  and  if  he  can  win  the  confi- 
dence of  those  whom  he  governs  the  confidence  of  his  chief 
in  Downing  Street  is  fairly  certain  to  follow.  He  can  do 
much  towards  gratifying  reasonable  hopes  of  the  white  people 
to  enjoy  a  profitable  trade,  and  the  equally  reasonable  hopes 
of  the  coloured  people  to  be  raised  in  the  scale  of  civilization 
by  the  kindly  and  considerate  influence  of  capable  and  upright 
officials.  And  since  the  Colonial  Office  has  almost  satisfied 
itself  that  its  prime  duty  in  selecting  Governors  and  in  pro- 
moting officials  is  good  government  and  not  merely  the 
bestowal  of  lucrative  offices,  a  succession  of  able  men  have 
conferred  real  and  substantial  benefit  on  the  native  popula- 
tions of  the  Crown  colonies,  and  upon  the  Europeans  who 
have  shared  in  their  general  prosperity. 


Ch.vii.]  Protectorates.  141 

The  Secretary  of  State. 

In  relation  to  the  Representative  and  the  Crown  colonies 
the  importance  of  the  Secretaryship  of  State  for  the 
Colonies  at  home  comes  out  strongly.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
this  Secretary  exercises  powers  of  singular  variety.  He  is  the 
de  facto  ruler  of  some  twenty  countries  situated  in  various  parts 
of  the  world.  Although  responsible  to  the  other  members 
of  the  Cabinet,  and  with  them  responsible  to  Parliament,  he 
always  has  a  wide  field  of  action  in  which  his  procedure 
is  left  to  himself.  There  is  no  case  in  this  century  in  which 
a  Colonial  Secretary  has  been  compelled  to  withdraw  from 
a  Cabinet,  nor  any  in  which  a  Cabinet  has  lost  office,  through 
disapproval  of  Parliament  on  a  colonial  question.  It  is, 
however,  only  since  1854  that  the  department  has  been  a 
separate  one.  For  many  years  the  colonies  were  under 
the  care  of  the  Home  Secretary,  but  in  1854  they  were 
attached  to  the  Secretaryship  of  State  for  War.  In  that 
year  the  Colonial  department  was  constituted,  and  Sir  George 
Grey  was  the  first  Secretary.  The  department  consists  of  a 
Parliamentary  Under-Secretary,  a  Permanent  Under-Secre- 
tary, three  Assistant  Under-Secretaries,  each  with  a  division 
of  colonies  allotted  to  him,  and  a  large  staff  of  clerks.  There 
is  a  single  service  for  the  Representative  and  Crown  colonies, 
and  officials  are  promoted  in  it  from  one  colony  to  another. 
In  some  cases  it  is  deemed  expedient  to  send  out  men  of  some 
distinction  in  other  spheres  as  Governors,  as  General  Sir 
Henry  Norman,  who  was  sent  to  establish  the  Crown  system 
in  Jamaica  in  place  of  the  Representative  system  after  the 
disturbances  during  the  administration  of  Governor  Eyre  in 
1865. 

Protectorates. 
The  events  of  recent  years  have  brought  within  the  em- 
pire territories  where  an  elaborate  system  of  government 
would  be  premature.  What  has  been  wanted  has  been  a 
provisional  supervision  of  affairs.  Thus  we  have  now  a 
number  of  territories  called  Protectorates,  each  directed  by 
a  Chief  Commissioner  and  a  staff.     Such  are  the  portions 


142  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vii. 

of  New  Guinea  allotted  to  Great  Britain  in  1888  ;  the  Somali 
coast  in  North-East  Africa ;  Zanzibar  and  Pemba  in  1890; 
Perak  and  other  small  native  states  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  ; 
Sarawak  and  Brueni  in  Borneo ;  and  various  scattered  islands 
in  the  Pacific. 

In  a  Protectorate  a  native  potentate  is  maintained  in 
power,  and  a  British  official,  designated  either  Commis- 
sioner or  Resident,  is  placed  at  the  capital  in  sole  charge 
of  foreign  relations,  and  with  varied  and  undefined  powers 
in  internal  affairs. 

And  beyond  these  there  are  some  territories  within  which 
no  authority  is  as  yet  exercised,  but  which  are  reserved  for  us 
by  treaty  with  other  European  powers  whenever  we  choose 
to  move  forward  into  them— the  'Spheres  of  Influence' 
in  Eastern,  Southern  and  Western  Africa. 

Subordinate  Colonies. 

We  should  also  note  that  there  are  places  which  are 
directed  from  other  colonies,  the  officials  being  responsible 
to  the  Governors  of  these  and  not  directly  to  the  Secretary  of 
State.  Aden  is  thus  governed  by  a  Resident  acting  under 
the  Governor  of  Bombay,  while  Perim  Island  and  Socotra 
Island  are  under  subordinates  of  the  Resident  of  Aden. 
The  Seychelles  are  subordinated  to  Mauritius  ;  Norfolk  Island 
to  New  South  Wales ;  Rotumah  to  Fiji. 

Chartered  Companies. 

In  Africa  we  find  once  more  in  extensive  operation  the 
principle  which  proved  so  effective  in  the  early  days  of 
colonization,  Government  through  Chartered  Com- 
panies. These  companies  have  certain  responsibilities  in 
exchange  for  certain  privileges,  as  the  East  India  Company 
once  had.  They  can  raise  a  military  police,  enrolling  natives 
under  European  officers,  can  issue  a  coinage,  maintain  a 
river  fleet,  and  under  certain  restrictions  regulate  trade. 
The  British  East  Africa  Co7npany  (1888),  capital  Mom- 
bassa;  the  Royal  Niger  Company  (1886),  capital  Asaba ; 
the  British  North  Borneo  Conipa?iy   (1877);   and  others, 


Ch.vii.]  Chartered  Companies.  143 

are  thus  continuing  the  old  policy.  Besides  the  signal  ex- 
ample of  the  International  Congo  Association,  there  is  also 
a  German  East  African  Company,  a  German  New  Guinea 
Company,  and  a  German  Company  for  Damaraland  (S.  W. 
Africa) ;  and  Frenchmen  are  considering  whether  it  is  not 
time  to  adopt  this  method  by  establishing  a  company  for 
the  Niger  and  Soudan. 

These  companies  have  been  constituted  hitherto  by  large 
capitalists  without  any  appeal  for  general  support,  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  they  should  not  be  more 
widely  based.  Public  subscription-lists  might  be  opened, 
and  the  shares  made  of  small  amount.  This  would  secure 
for  them  a  wide  range  of  popular  interest  and  sympathy. 
For  a  contrast  of  judgments  as  to  the  'company'  method, 
Adam  Smith's  chap.  vii.  may  be  compared  with  J.  S.  Mill's 
defence  of  the  East  India  Company  in  his  Representative 
Government.  The  method  seems  to  be  a  sound  one  in 
cases  where  the  Imperial  Government  is  unwilling  to  assume 
direct  government  of  regions  and  yet  desires  to  encourage 
and  regulate  British  enterprise.  It  is  stated  by  men  who  know 
Africa  that  intermittent  journeys  and  expeditions  can  be  of 
little  effect,  and  that  philanthropy  therefore  does  not  supply 
the  kind  of  motive  power  required.  Popular  interest  fluctuates, 
and  must  do  so  in  the  great  variety  of  human  affairs  brought 
from  time  to  time  before  the  attention  of  a  world-people  like 
the  English.  As  in  religious  enterprises  the  Missionary 
Societies,  so  in  general  affairs  a  Chartered  Company,  supplies 
a  fierma?ient  activity,  and  when  regulated  by  principles  ap- 
proved by  Parliament,  and  embodied  in  their  charter  as  the 
condition  of  State  countenance,  offers  an  admirable  agency 
for  extending  European  influence.  The  method  may  prove 
of  very  great  effect  in  developing  Africa,  especially  if  a  broad 
popular  basis  by  means  of  small  shares  were  laid.  Its 
practicability,  its  elasticity,  its  combination  of  freedom  and 
responsibility,  and  the  success  already  achieved,  have  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  all  the  European  nations  concerned 
with  Africa. 


144  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 


FEDEBATIOW. 

In  the  sphere  of  government  there  are  in  our  day  two 
great  tendencies  working  in  opposing  directions :  a  ten- 
dency towards  the  aggregation  of  communities  where  the 
strength  that  comes  from  union  is  the  primary  necessity, 
and  a  tendency  towards  separation  where  good  govern- 
ment can  be  best  secured  by  that  full  use  of  the  know- 
ledge and  sentiments  of  communities  wJiijcjLU^^ojsible^only^ 
to  the  smaller  groups  into  which  geographical  and  racial 
conditions  have  separated  men.  On  the  continent  of  Europe 
the  unification  of  Italy  and  of  Germany  have  at  last  followed 
upon  the  unification  of  Britain  and  France  and  Spain,  and 
centralization  has  been  the  predominant  tendency.  But  in 
the  British  dominions  the  separative  tendency  has,  as  we 
have  seen,  prevailed.  The  result  has  been  that  our  empire 
is  much  weaker  than  the  other  great  empires.  We  may 
rejoice  at  the  liberties  acquired  by  our  great  responsible 
colonies,  but  the  reform  has  hardly  strengthened  the  empire 
as  a  unit,  in  relation  to  the  empires  of  Germany  and  Russia 
and  the  republics  of  France  and  America.  From  this  has 
arisen  a  more  earnest  attention  to  the  question  whether  there 
are  no  means  by  which  the  disintegrating  forces  might  be 
counteracted  ;  whether  the  empire  might  not  become  more 
really  a  single  State  than  it  is. 

There  was  a  method  of  union  well  known  in  the  Greek 
world  of  2000  years  ago,  and  revived  with  some  signal 
successes  since  the  mediaeval  period,— the  method  of 
Federation.  The  combination  of  local  with  national 
strength  which  stands  before  us  in  the  great  federation 
of  thirty-eight  States  into  which  our  own  former  thirteen 
colonies  in  America  have  developed,  strikes  the  attention 
of  all  men,  especially  since  the  Union  triumphed  in  the 
War  of  Secession  of  1861-65.  And  as  Englishmen  and 
Colonists  look  at  their  own  empire,  the  question  arises 
whether  the  time  has  not  come  for  us  to  work  in  the 
opposite  direction  to  that  in  which  'progress'  has  been 
made  in  the  two   generations   just    passed,   and   to    seek 


Ch.vii.]  Confederation.    In  Canada.  145 

in  federation  a  means  of  reunion.  The  general  accept- 
ance of  the  term  federation  is  itself  an  indication  of 
the  length  to  which  the  movement  towards  separation 
has  hitherto  proceeded.  Federation  is  union  by  foedus, 
that  is  by  treaty  or  compact,  and  implies  persons  or  bodies 
otherwise  independent;  it  does  not  strictly  apply  to  the 
union  of  the  members  of  a  single  body.  The  'States'  of 
America  are  sovereign  states  acting  under  a  compact.  To 
speak  of  'federating'  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  is  to 
acknowledge  the  virtual  independence  of  the  latter. 

CONFKDEHATION. 

But  before  this  is  applied  to  the  widely-scattered  members 
of  our  empire  it  is  reasonable  to  ask  whether  anything" 
has  been  done  in  the  way  of  forming  groups  within 
the  empire.  Such  groups  have  been  formed.  It  is  con- 
venient to  speak  of  them — in  distinction  from  groups  of 
communities  which  by  their  union  form  a  sovereign  power — 
as  Confederations,  and  we  have  already  had  before  us  one 
successful  example  of  confederation,  and  in  several  cases 
steps  towards  forming  others  are  being  taken. 

(a)  In  Canada. 
The  growth  of  population  in  our  North  American  territory 
led  to  the  formation  of  '  colonies '  which  were  not  merely  ex- 
tensions of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  but  of  distinct  status, 
directly  related  to  the  United  Kingdom.  In  1 867  the  important 
step  was  taken  of  unifying  all  these  as  a  confederation  under 
the  title  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  One  after  another 
all  the  colonies  in  that  region,  including  the  old  East  Coast 
colonies,  Nova  Scotia,  Prince  Edward  Island,  New  Bruns- 
wick, and  British  Columbia,  but  not  Newfoundland,  have 
entered  this  union,  and  we  have  in  this  Confederation  another 
successful  application  of  the  method  by  the  English  race. 
Each  colony  or  '  province,'  as  it  is  called,  has  its  own  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor and  Legislature  working  within  defined 
limits,  and  there  is  a  Governor-General  with  a  Ministry  and 

L 


146  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vn. 

a  Parliament  for  the  Dominion  as  a  whole.  A  signal  instance 
of  the  strength  acquired  by  union  has  been  the  construction 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  which  might  indeed  have 
been  built  by  the  Canadians  if  they  had  remained  entirely 
separated,  but  could  hardly  have  been  built  so  promptly  and 
so  rapidly,  if  at  all.  The  success  of  confederation  in  Canada 
is  undoubted,  although  occasionally  there  is  some  friction, 
(1)  on  the  part  of  the  French  inhabitants  of  Lower  Canada, 
overborne  by  the  more  rapidly  progressive  provinces  to  the 
West ;  and  (2)  on  the  part  of  the  East  Coast  provinces,  not 
satisfied  always  that  they  receive  as  much  from  the  funds 
of  the  Central  Exchequer  as  their  contributions  entitle  them 
to  receive,  or  as  their  needs,  as  estimated  by  themselves, 
require. 

(b)    In  the  "West  Indies. 

The  success  of  Confederation  in  Canada  led  to  a  somewhat 
premature  judgment  on  the  part  of  some  English  statesmen 
that  it  might  be  applied  to  some  other  parts  of  the  empire.  In 
1 871  the  smaller  islands  in  the  West  Indies  were  formed  into 
two  groups.  Antigua,  St.  Kitts,  Montserrat,  Nevis,  Dominica, 
and  the  Virgin  Islands,  were  formed  into  a  single  Government 
under  the  title  of  the  Leeward  Islands,  in  which  there  was 
a  central  Governor,  but  separate  Councils  and  Legislatures  on 
the  different  islands  continued  as  before  :  Barbados,  St.  Vin- 
cent, Grenada,  St.  Lucia,  and  Tobago  were  grouped  as  the 
Windward  Islands.  But  the  failure  in  this  latter  case  is  in- 
structive; one  member  of  the  group,  Barbados,  so  far  excelled 
the  others  in  wealth,  vigour,  and  prosperity,  that  a  severe 
struggle  arose  in  that  island  which  resulted  in  the  success 
of  the  anti-confederationists ;  the  group  was  constituted 
without  it,  and  it  still  possesses  a  separate  Government. 
Jamaica  also  is  separate,  and  so  is  Trinidad,  though  Tobago 
was  annexed  to  it  in  1889;  and  the  Bahamas  constitute 
another  Government  still.  As  within  the  Windward  and 
Leeward  Islands  the  local  legislatures  remain,  and  there  is 
no  central  legislature  at  all  in  the  former  group,  Cen- 
tralization is  not  yet  far  advanced.     When  we  consider  that 


Ch.VII.] 


In  South  Africa. 


m 


the  whole  population  of  the  British  West  Indies  is  but  one 
million  and  a  quarter,  and  that  there  are  no  great  differences 
in  their  industrial  pursuits  or  in  their  populations,  we  cannot 
consider  that  Confederation  has  made  much  way  in  this 
part  of  our  dominions,  while  these  islands  are  ranged 
under  six  separate  Governments. 


Thomas? <3#Virz'm  la. 
styakit- 


Leeward  I? 

~ — /  ^arbuda 

■fSSt.Kitts     ' 


fjlytigua 


Montserr'afi 


w? 


uadaloupe 


vOlMartinique 
St.Lucia([j    Barbados 


Windward     /  {£ 

St.VinceAt()  /  \W 

I?  /    ill 


Grenadji^  / 


Walter  &■  Bon  tall  sc. 


(c)  In  South  Africa. 

It  was  in  South  Africa  that  the  attempt  proved  to  be 
quite  premature,  and  considerable  irritation  and  disturbance 
greeted  the  proposal  of  Lord  Carnarvon  in  1875-77  to  estab- 
lish a  South  African  Confederation.  Still,  the  idea  is  familiar 
to  our  countrymen  out  there,  and  though  we  may  readily 
I,  2 


14S  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vii. 

accept  their  decision  that  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  any 
movement,  we  all  feel  that  the  curious  agglomeration  of 
colonies,  republics,  and  protectorates  of  South  Africa  is  at 
present  in  a  situation  which  is  only  provisional  and  prepara- 
tory. The  Dominion  idea  was  not  accepted  at  once  by  the 
extreme  eastern  or  extreme  western  provinces  of  Canada,  yet 
none  of  them  seriously  question  its  value  now. 

(d)  Australasia. 

It  has  been  a  common  saying  in  Australia  that  our  fellow- 
countrymen  in  that  part  of  the  world  did  not  recognise  the 
term  'Australian ' ;  each  recognised  only  his  own  colony  and 
the  empire.  But  the  advocates  of  combination  for  certain 
common  purposes  achieved  a  great  step  forward  in  the 
formation  of  a  Federal  Council  in  1885.  It  was  to  be  only 
a  *  Council,'  its  decisions  having  no  force  over  any  colony 
unless  accepted  afterwards  by  the  colonial  Legislature. 
Victoria,  Queensland,  Tasmania,  and  West  Australia  joined, 
New  South  Wales,  South  Australia,  and  New  Zealand 
standing  out,  and,  so  constituted,  it  met  twice.  The  results 
of  the  deliberations  were  not  unsatisfactory,  and  the  opinion 
that  the  move  was  in  the  right  direction  rapidly  grew. 
In  February  of  1890  a  Federation  Conference,  not  private 
but  representative  of  the  different  Governments,  was  called 
at  Melbourne.  It  adopted  an  address  to  the  Queen 
declaring  the  opinion  of  the  conference  to  be  that  the 
best  interests  of  the  Australian  colonies  require  the 
early  formation  of  a  union  under  the  Crown  into  one 
Government,  both  legislative  and  executive. 

Events  proceed  quickly  in  Colonial  History.  In  the  course 
of  1890  the  hesitation  of  New  South  Wales  was  finally  over- 
come ;  powerful  factors  being  the  weakening  of  the  Free 
Trade  position  at  the  election  of  1890,  the  report  of  General 
Edwards  on  the  Defences,  and  the  difficulties  about  Chinese 
immigration.  A  Convention  accordingly  assembled  at 
Sydney  in  March,  1891,  which  agreed  upon  a  Constitution 
to  be  recommended  to  the  several  Colonies.  The  Federation 
is  to  be  called  *  The  Commonwealth  of  Australia  * ; 


Ch.vii.]  Imperial  Federation.  149 

it  is  to  have  a  Federal  Legislature  and  Federal  Executive, 
with  the  present  Colonial  Legislatures  and  Executives  in  addi- 
tion. The  Federal  Legislature  is  to  consist  of  (1)  a  Senate 
of  8  members  from  each  '  State,'  and  (2)  a  House  of  Represen- 
tatives with  members  according  to  population.  The  Governor- 
General  will  be  the  only  official  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and 
he  will  be  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy. 
A  Cabinet  of  seven  ministers,  responsible  to  the  Federal 
Legislature,  will  be  the  Federal  Executive.  Posts  and  Tele- 
graphs, Immigration,  and  Marriage  Laws  will  be  amongst 
the  matters  placed  under  Federal  authority,  and  on  the 
specially  difficult  subject  of  Trade  Regulation  there  will  be 
common  policy.  There  is  to  be  no  Appeal  except  in  Public 
Law.  Some  modifications  may  be  made  before  the  Constitu- 
tion is  finally  adopted,  but  it  is  almost  certain  that  the  Con- 
federation will  be  accomplished  before  this  century  closes. 

IMPEEIAL  FEDEEATIOW. 

The  application  of  federation  to  the  relationship  of  the 
mother-country  to  the  subordinate  constituents  of  the  empire 
is,  however,  a  more  complicated  problem.  It  is  usually  dis- 
cussed under  the  title  of  Imperial  Federation,  and  became 
a  movement  in  politics  when  an  Imperial  Federation  League 
was  formed  in  1884,  chiefly  by  the  efforts  of  an  Englishman 
who  had  always  given  great  attention  to  colonial  affairs,  and 
had  held  for  a  time  the  office  of  Parliamentary  Under-Secre- 
tary, the  late  William  Edward  Forster.  The  unity  of  the 
empire  as  a  combination  of  resources  for  common  interests 
and  common  defence,  without  interfering  with  the  existing 
rights  of  '  Local  Parliaments '  as  regards  '  local '  affairs,  is  the 
fundamental  principle  of  the  League.  It  includes  in  its 
membership  Englishmen  at  home  and  in  the  Colonies,  and 
has  succeeded  in  keeping  itself  quite  clear  from  the  party 
politics  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

§  1.    Participation  in  an  Imperial  Sovereignty. 
In  the  present  constitution  the  Queen  and  Parliament  of 
the  Linked  Kingdom  is  the  sovereign  authority  for  all  affairs 


150  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

of  the  empire,  and  other  'Parliaments' are  delegates  and  sub- 
ordinates. The  entrance,  therefore,  of  any  colonies  into  a 
federation  with  themselves  and  with  Great  Britain  implies, 
on  the  face  of  it,  at  once  a  great  responsibility  and  a  great 
privilege  for  the  colonies.  It  is  a  question  of  their  partici- 
pating in  the  sovereign  power  of  the  empire,  and  cannot  be 
rightly  judged  if  attention  is  confined  to  the  purely  selfish 
benefits  which  any  colony  may  acquire  by  the  change.  Increase 
of  efficiency  it  ought  to  mean,  but  for  the  colonies  it  must 
mean  increase  of  responsibility  also. 

This  consideration  at  once  enables  us  to  draw  a  line  among 
the  colonies  and  so  to  limit  the  field  of  our  view.  For  there 
can  be  no  question  of  admitting  to  participation  in  sovereign 
power  of  the  empire  communities  which  are  not  yet  entrusted 
with  the  government  of  themselves.  The  great  dependency, 
India,  is  at  once  placed  out  of  court,  and  all  the  Crown 
Colonies  go  with  her.  They  are  ruled  by  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  so  long  as  they  are  under  this  tutelage  they 
are  not  eligible  for  admission  to  the  government  of  other 
communities.  The  case  of  the  Representative  Colonies 
is  not  essentially  different.  So  long  as  the  chief  officials  are 
not  responsible  to  the  colony  for  their  actions,  but  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  and  so  long  as  legislation  is  so  closely 
supervised  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  these  colonies,  they  are  not 
sufficiently  self-governing  to  become  members  of  a  federa- 
tion. This,  therefore,  limits  our  field  to  the  Responsible 
COLONIES — Canada,  Newfoundland,  the  Cape,  and  the  colonies 
of  Australasia — ten  in  all.  These  are  already  sufficiently 
autonomous  to  render  their  admission  to  a  compact,  on 
equal  terms  with  the  United  Kingdom,  a  matter  of  great 
simplicity  in  itself.  If  they  dispensed  with  their  Governors, 
and  decided  to  consider  themselves  in  a  position  to  treat 
independently  with  foreign  countries,  they  would  be  indepen- 
dent. 

Are  these  ten  colonies,  then,  by  means  of  imperial  federa- 
tion, to  enter  the  sovereign  body  of  the  British  Empire  f 
Are  they  prepared  to  bear  a  part  of  the  great  task  we  have  to 
discharge  in  governing  India?    Are  they  ready  to  take  their 


Ch.vii.]      Participation  in  an  Imperial  Sovereignty.       151 

part  in  controlling  the  affairs  of  the  West  Indies,  and  Hong 
Kong,  and  all  our  other  colonies  ?  For  this  is  our  Imperial 
function,  and  a  part  which  Englishmen  have  always  to  bear 
in  mind.  The  President  of  the  Imperial  Federation  League, 
Lord  Rosebery,  has  declared  that  the  title-deeds  of  the  empire 
belong  to  these  islands ;  the  colonies  must  perceive  that  to 
share  in  them  is  to  acquire  a  privilege  for  which  they  must  be 
ready  to  give  a  return.  And  why  should  they  not  ?  It  may 
be  replied  that  their  own  development  absorbs  all  their 
energies,  and  must  do  so  for  some  time  to  come.  This  may 
be  so,  but  on  the  other  side  there  is  much  to  be  said  for 
Englishmen  at  home  having  the  co-operation  of  Englishmen 
in  these  ten  colonies  in  governing  India  and  our  Crown 
colonies,. 

Another  question  is — Do  we  in  Great  Britain  wish  for  their 
help  in  dealing  with  the  other  great  nations  of  the  world  ? 
At  present  Britain  alone  controls  the  foreign  relations  of  the 
whole  empire.  Are  we  ready  to  admit  the  colonies  ?  This 
question  must  be  faced,  if  not  immediately,  yet  whenever  some 
real  emergency  arises,  war  or  peace  with  the  United  States, 
for  example.  And  it  is  plain  that  the  time  is  rapidly 
going  by  when  we  can  ask  for  help  from  these  colonies  after 
a  declaration  of  war,  if  we  have  not  asked  for  advice  or 
offered  any  part  in  deliberation  before  it.  They  may  offer 
help,  but  we  should  not  be  in  a  position  to  request  it,  much 
less  to  demand  it. 

And  further,  are  they  ready  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  us  f 
are  they  ready  to  be  committed  definitely  to  imperial  policy 
when  they  themselves  have  had  a  part  in  shaping  it?  At 
present  they  are  so  committed  without  being  consulted.  On 
declaration  of  war  by  Russia  against  Great  Britain,  the 
wharves  of  Melbourne  may  be  sacked,  and  gun-boats  make 
havoc  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  Federation  would  involve  the 
continuance  of  this  liability  :  but  it  would  give  them  a  share 
in  deciding  whether  or  not  war  should  be  entered  upon. 

Again,  are  the  colonies  prepared  to  take  interest  in  one 
another's  welfare  in  relation  to  foreign  nations  ?  If  the 
Norman  and  Breton   fishermen  encroach  upon  Newfound- 


152  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

landers,  are  New  Zealanders  ready  to  take  up  the  quarrel? 
Great  Britain  would  have  to  do  so.  Will  Queensland 
join  us,  or  would  it  insist  on  non-intervention  in  an  affair 
apparently  so  remote  ?  On  the  other  hand,  would  the  citi- 
zens of  Montreal  and  Toronto  be  ready  to  bear  their  part  in 
supporting  the  Australian  demand  for  war  with  France — all 
over  the  world  as  it  would  have  to  be— because  France  per- 
sisted in  peopling  New  Caledonia  with  her  irreclaimable 
convicts,  and  was  unable  or  unwilling  to  prevent  them 
sooner  or  later  corrupting  Australian  towns  and  counties 
with  their  crimes  ?  These  are  matters  of  vital  concern  to 
inhabitants  of  the  several  colonies :  are  all  the  colonies 
prepared  to  take  them  up  ?  It  is  not  easy  to  see  why  they 
should  not,  if  they  look  at  the  matter  in  a  broad  way.  France 
is  more  likely  to  keep  hands  off  Australasian  islands  if 
Australia  is  backed  up  by  Canada  and  South  Africa  as  well 
as  by  England  ;  and  in  return,  each  of  these  other  groups 
would  receive  support'  from  the  rest  in  its  hour  of  need. 
But  it  must  be  thoroughly  understood  that  to  share  England's 
position  is  to  share  a  lot  in  which  rights  have  to  be  main- 
tained against  the  aggression  of  foreign  nations  in  all  parts 
of  the  world.  If  these  colonies  or  groups  of  colonies  are  yet 
only  in  the  individualistic  or  '  selfish'  stage,  they  are  not 
ready  for  a  Federative  Union. 

Expense  of  Sovereignty,  Present  and  Past. 

Great  Britain  supports  the  defensive  forces  of  the  empire  at 
great  expense.  Our  Navy  costs  us  about  one  per  cent,  of 
our  national  income,  some  twopence-halfpenny  in  the  pound  ; 
the  Army  costs  threepence-halfpenny ;  the  debt  for  past  wars, 
not  paid  for  at  the  time,  fivepence  more — a  total  of,  say,  ten- 
pence-halfpenny  in  the  pound  as  our  Imperial  police  rate. 
What  part  are  the  colonies  prepared  to  take  in  imperial 
defence  ?  We  must  not  be  put  off  by  the  plea  that  they 
too  have  debts  of  their  own,  as,  with  some  exceptions,  their 
'Debts'  have  nothing  to  do  with  defence,  but  are  deferred 
payments  for  goods  received.     We  in  Great  Britain   have 


Ch.vii.j     Expense  of  Sovereignty,  Present  and  Past.      153 

protected  the  empire,  and  it  is  only  through  us  that 
Canada  is  autonomous,  and  that  no  part  of  Australia  is 
in  occupation  by  France  or  Germany.  It  may  be  said  that 
these  colonies  were  most  of  them  not  born  when  we  in- 
curred this  debt;  but  their  territory  was  in  existence,  and  if 
that  had  been  occupied  by  other  nations,  Victoria,  Queens- 
land, and  the  rest,  might  never  have  been  born  at  all.  For 
many  years  Imperial  troops  were  maintained  at  the  expense 
of  Great  Britain  in  these  colonies ;  in  South  Africa  they 
were  frequently  in  active  service ;  and  in  New  Zealand  they 
were  employed  against  the  Maories.  But  as  Responsible 
Government  was  granted  it  was  felt  at  home  that  no  farther 
expenditure  of  this  kind  was  justified,  and  these  colonies 
undertook  their  own  military  defence.  In  case  of  invasion 
they  would  receive  assistance  only  if  it  could  be  spared. 
In  naval  affairs  also  a  move  has  been  made  in  the  direction 
of  their  undertaking  the  defence,  or  partial  defence,  of  their 
own  coasts  and  harbours  as  distinct  from  keeping  open  the 
high  seas.  As,  however,  they  benefit  very  much  as  we  do 
from  the  open  highways,  this  responsibility  would  be  a  com- 
mon one  if  they  shared  sovereign  power. 

The  broad  question  stands  thus — Is  participation  in 
sovereignty,  with  all  its  privileges  and  all  its  responsibilities, 
the  '  legitimate '  aim  for  the  peoples  of  these  colonies  ? 
As  Lord  Dufferin  puts  it,  '  So  long  as  any  colony  desires  to 
recognise  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown  and  its  own  civil  and 
military  obligations  as  an  integral  part  of  the  empire,  so  long 
it  may  safely  claim  its  right  to  share  in  the  past  glory  and 
the  future  greatness  of  Great  Britain.'  Do  they  anticipate 
that  the  next  change — for  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  at  least 
change  is  more  normal  than  fixity — will  be  a  separation  of 
themselves  from  our  empire,  leaving  Great  Britain  and; 
Ireland  to  continue  rulers  not  only  of  these  three  kingdoms, 
but  of  India  and  thirty  colonies;  or  will  they  claim  as  part 
of  their  birthright  the  sharing  with  us  of  the  lead  in  the 
elevation  of  whole  nations  and  tribes  towards  the  level  of 
Europe  ? 


154  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  ich.  vii. 

§  2.  The  Mechanism. 

If  this  end  were  decided  upon  by  them  and  by  us,  there 
would  then  arise  the  question  of  the  means  of  accomplishing 
it.     The  chief  methods  put  forward  are  : — 

(i)  A  reform  of  the  British  Parliament  in  order  to  give 
these  colonies  representation. 

(ii)  The  construction  of  a  new  Sovereign  Legislature  for 
the  empire. 

(i)  Admission  to  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

The  standing  objection  to  the  first  method  isthat  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  United  Kingdom  would  be  controlled  in  part 
by  the  colonial  representatives,  whilst  Britons  would  have  no 
control  over  the  affairs  in  the  colonies.  A  colonial  group  or 
party  some  150  strong  would  be  present,  in  a  House  of 
Commons  of  650,  which  would  utterly  dislocate  our  doinestic 
legislation  :  they  would  be  in  respect  to  it  a  '  moving  cargo,' 
rendering  unworkable  parliamentary  government  as  hitherto 
known.  The  national  affairs  of  the  United  Kingdom  might 
perhaps  be  separated  from  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  at 
large,  and  the  powers  of  the  full  Legislature  limited  to  the 
latter  :  but  this  would  be  not  to  retain  our  present  Parlia- 
ment, but  to  divide  it  and  constitute  two  Legislatures,  and  it 
is  therefore  a  different  plan. 

(ii)  Dividing  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

The  establishment  of  two  Legislatures :  one  Imperial,  one 
purely  British.  This  would  undoubtedly  be  to  make  a  great 
innovation :  it  would  be  inventing  a  constitution.  One  part  of 
this  might  be  a  modification  of  our  present  Parliament,  which 
might  become  the  Imperial  Legislature,  local  British  affairs 
being  removed  from  its  care ;  or  our  present  Parliament 
might  continue  to  be  British.  In  either  case  one  new  J*g£is- 
lature  would  have  to  be  constructed.  We  may  look  to  Canada 
to  see  how  this  is  accomplished  there,  and  also  to  the  United 
States  ;  but  as  these  are  new  countries  for  which  new  institu- 


Ch.  vii.]         Dividing  the  Imperial  Parliament.  155 

tions  have  been  easily  constructed,  we  may  learn  more  from 
the  new  constitution  at  work  in  old  countries.  The  imperial 
legislature  of  the  German  Empire  is  composed  of  a  Federal 
Council  of  58  elected  by  the  States,  and  a  Chamber  of  397 
elected  by  ballot  and  universal  suffrage  by  the  whole  people 
of  Germany,  and  these  in  addition  to  the  separate  legis- 
latures of  the  various  constituent  kingdoms  and  duchies. 
Austro- Hungary,  again,  is  working  out  a  federative  consti- 
tution. It  has  not  achieved  success  with  all  its  varied 
groups,  but  it  has  succeeded  to  a  considerable  degree.  By 
the  Beust  Constitution  of  1867  two  National  Parliaments 
were  constituted  or  continued :  one  for  Hungary  (a  Diet)  ; 
the  other  called  a  Reichsrath,  for  all  the  other  con- 
stituents of  the  empire.  A  third  Parliament,  composed 
of  delegations  from  these  bodies,  meets  at  Vienna  and 
Pesth  alternately.  There  are  three  executives ;  one  for  each 
part,  and  one  for  the  Empire.  The  latter  consists  of  a  Chan- 
cellorship and  three  ministries,  Foreign  Affairs,  Defence, 
Finance,  all  considered  imperially.  Commerce  was  specifi- 
cally left  for  the  Diet  and  the  Reichsrath  to  arrange  severally; 
but  Hungary  has  chosen  to  join  the  Customs  Union 
adopted  by  the  rest  of  the  empire.  The  weakness  lies 
in  Hungary  having  received  full  rights,  while  the  other 
nationalities  were  disappointed.  Since  then  the  Croatian 
and  Slavonian  Diet  has  received  a  Cabinet :  the  proposal  to 
grant  one  to  Bohemia  in  1871  was  frustrated  by  the  German 
party.  But  at  least  we  can  see  here  (1)  the  subjects  chosen 
as  '  Imperial ;'  (2)  a  machinery  working  well,  so  far  as  it  goes. 
(Leger's  History ',  1889.) 

Such  an  Imperial  Legislature  for  the  British  Empire  is  by  no 
means  a  chimera — and  it  may  come.  If  there  should  be  a  suc- 
cessful movement  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  direction  of 
Home  Rule  for  the  separate  divisions,  England,  Scotland, 
Wales,  and  Ireland,  a  separate  Imperial  Legislature  would 
then  become  indispensable  for  us,  and  the  colonies  might  at 
the  time  of  its  constitution  be  admitted.  The  objection 
felt  by  practical  English  people  is,  briefly,  this.  We  are  one 
of  the  great  nations  of  the  world  ;   our  Parliament  is  the 


156  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vn. 

expression  of  our  public  life,  our  historical  instrument  of 
government',  the  welfare  of  35,000,000  people,  our  position 
among  the  nations,  and  the  discharge  of  our  duties  in 
India  and  in  our  other  colonies,  all  depend  upon  the 
efficiency  of  Parliament :  Parliament  must  therefore  gather 
into  itself  the  nation's  wisdom,  and  wield  its  resources  to  the 
full.  Could  this  be  done  by  a  Parliament  no  longer  drawing 
to  itself  the  undivided  loyalty  and  undistracted  attention 
which  gives  power  to  our  Parliament  now  ?  If  there  is  any 
danger  of  this,  our  national  and  imperial  position  forbids  any 
risk  being  run  ;  and  it  would  be  an  infinitely  lesser  evil  to 
leave  these  particular  colonies  entirely  to  themselves,  and 
conduct  the  empire  to  new  developments  without  them. 

It  would  seem  therefore  that  we  must  keep  in  view  both 
these  movements — (1)  that  which  aims  at  bringing  the  colonies 
into  sovereignty,  and  (2)  that  which  works  within  the  United 
Kingdom  towards  devolution  from  Parliament  of  the  local 
affairs  of  the  United  Kingdom.  If  the  latter  becomes  strong, 
Imperial  Federationists  may  find  their  objects  accomplished 
independently  of  their  efforts.  This  would  be  a  reform  within 
the  constitution,  and  naturally  brought  about :  any  other, 
though  no  more  impossible  than  the  new  German  consti- 
tution, is  not  likely  to  be  favoured  by  British  statesmen. 

§  3.  Temporary  Reforms. 

(a)  Union  for  Particular  Aims. 

Failing  the  achievement  of  Parliamentary  union,  or  whilst 
waiting  for  it,  Imperial  Federationists  may  very  well  give 
close  attention  to  the  better  working  out  of  certain  definite 
problems  within  the  constitution  of  the  empire  as  it  stands. 
There  are  many  reforms  which  even  now  are  considered  to 
be  feasible,  some  of  them  urgently  necessary.  Those  set 
forth  by  the  men  most  competent  to  judge  are — 

Defence  of  the  Empire. 

Intercourse  :  including  traffic  of  all  kinds,  especially  the 
transmission  of  letters,  telegrams,  and  journals,  possibly  at. 
rates  lower  than  cost  price. 


Ch.vii.]  Temporary  Reforms.  157 

Migration  :  by  which  it  would  be  arranged  how  far 
Britain  might  continue  to  expect  a  welcome  for  her  emi- 
grants on  the  part  of  the  colonies. 

Legislation  on  various  Commercial  and  Social 
Matters  :  e.  g.  bankruptcy,  which  would  work  better  if  the 
same  laws  obtained  throughout  all  parts  of  the  empire  where 
the  English  race  is  in  the  majority. 

Trade  Policy  :  but  this  is  a  knotty  problem.  To  some 
it  is  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter  ;  to  others  it  must  at  all  costs 
be  excluded  from  consideration.  The  calmness  of  many  an 
evening's  discussion  has  changed  into  heat  and  acrimony 
on  the  introduction  of  this  topic. 

(b)  Partial  Admission  to  Government. 

As  provisional  and  temporary  means  of  closer  union, 
numerous  projects  for  Imperial  Councils  by  which  the 
voice  of  the  colonies  would  be  heard  at  home  have  been  put 
forward.  The  most  practical  of  these  is  a  method  which 
is  being  actually  developed,  namely,  the  open  and  official 
recognition  by  the  Colonial  Office  of  the  Agents-General 
who  are  placed  by  the  several  colonies  in  charge  of  their 
affairs  in  London.  It  is  becoming  one  of  the  unwritten  laws 
of  the  constitution  that  these  officials  are  to  be  talked  with 
freely,  if  not  exactly  consulted,  at  the  Colonial  Office  in  the 
affairs  which  concern  their  colonies.  At  any  time  a  meeting 
of  the  Agents-General,  in  communication  by  telegraph  with 
the  ministries  at  Ottawa  and  Melbourne  and  other  colonial 
capitals,  would  constitute  a  Colonial  Council  which  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  would  find  every  inducement  to  consult,  although 
his  responsibility  would  be  to  Parliament,  not  to  them. 

The  Value  of  the  Political  Bond. 

In  conclusion,  we  have  still  a  question  to  ask  going  to  the 
very  root  of  the  whole  question  of  Imperial  Federation. 
What  is  the  value  of  the  political  connexion  among  the  other 
bonds  which  by  nature  subsist  between  us  and  our  brethren 
in   Canada  and  Australia  ?     These   bonds   are   many  and 


15$  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vii. 

strong  :  a  common  language,  a  common  literature,  common 
science,  common  social  organization,  common  character, 
many  communities  of  religion  and  education  ;  allowing  some- 
thing for  German  and  other  '  foreign  '  elements,  we  all  come 
of  the  same  stock,  we  all  look  back  to  common  ancestors,  and 
we  look  up  to  common  heroes.  What  has  unity  of  govern- 
ment to  give  in  addition  to  these  sources  of  fellow-feeling,  and 
others  beyond  reach  of  analysis  and  enumeration  ? 

Adam  Smith  points  out  (Bk.  IV,  Chap,  vii)  in  his  usual 
incisive  way,  and  supporting  himself  with  undeniable  facts, 
that  Governments  had  little  merit  in  either  'projecting'  or 
1  effectuating  the  establishment '  of  colonies ;  quite  the 
contrary,  so  soon  as  private  enterprise  had  '  effectuated,'  then 
'  Government '  stepped  in  to  secure  the  monopoly  of  com- 
merce, and  otherwise  to  make  profits  from  the  new  situation. 
All  this  was  true  of  Spain  and  Portugal ;  of  England,  only 
somewhat  less  than  any  of  the  rest.  The  debt  of  the  colonies 
to  their  mother-countries  was  not  of  a  political  order  :  it  was 
that  Europe  bred  the  men.  Magna  virum  mater — to  Europe 
they  owed  the  education  and  enlightened  views  of  their 
enterprising  founders.  Nor  has  England  obtained  much 
more  solid  advantage  from  them  as  colonies  ;  they  have  not 
followed  the  analogy  of  Greek  or  Roman  colonies,  by  fur- 
nishing military  forces  for  our  defence,  or  contributing  to  our 
revenues.  The  monopoly  of  trade  was  an  advantage 
which  Adam  Smith  questioned  :  in  any  case,  it  has  disap- 
peared. He  discusses  carefully  the  possibility  of  the 
representation  of  America  in  Parliament ;  and  on  the 
whole  he  is  in  favour  of  it.  But  in  the  passage  in  which 
what  seems  to  be  his  real  judgment  is  expressed  he 
says  of  an  amicable  separation  :  '  By  thus  parting  good 
friends  the  natural  affection  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother- 
country,  which,  perhaps,  our  late  dissensions  (1776)  have 
well-nigh  extinguished,  would  quickly  revive.  It  might  dis- 
pose them  not  only  to  respect,  for  whole  centuries  together, 
that  treaty  of  commerce  which  they  had  concluded  with  us  at 
parting,  but  to  favour  us  in  war  as  well  as  in  trade,  and 
instead  of  turbulent  and  factious  subjects,  to  become   our 


Ch.  vii.]  The  Value  of  the  Political  Bond.  159 

most  faithful,  effectual,  and  generous  allies ;  and  the  same 
sort  of  parental  affection  on  the  one  side,  and  filial  respect  on 
the  other,  might  revive  between  Great  Britain  and  her 
colonies,  which  used  to  subsist  between  those  of  ancient 
Greece  and  the  mother-city  from  which  they  descended.5 

Edmund  Burke,  in  his  speech  on  conciliation  with  our 
American  colonies  (1775),  proposed  that  our  Parliament 
should  accept  from  America  taxes,  subsidies,  aids,  and  grants 
when  offered  in  their  own  way,  namely,  through  their 
own  Assemblies  or  Courts,  not  by  imposition  of  our  Parlia- 
mentary authority.  He  did  not  deny  that  such  Parliamentary 
authority  existed,  but  he  questioned  its  value  as  a  means  of 
securing  the  end  and  purpose  of  government,  and  he  gave 
utterance  to  this  memorable  declaration  :  '  My  hold  of  the 
colonies  is  in  the  close  affection  which  grows  from  common 
names,  from  kindred  blood,  from  similar  privileges,  and  equal 
protection.  These  are  ties  which,  though  light  as  air,  are  as 
strong  as  links  of  iron  .  . .  Do  not  entertain  so  weak  an 
imagination  as  that  your  registers  and  your  bonds,  your  affi- 
davits and  your  sufferances,  your  crockets  and  your  clear- 
ances, are  what  form  the  great  securities  of  your  commerce. 
Do  not  dream  that  your  letters  of  office,  and  your  instructions, 
and  your  suspending  clauses,  are  the  things  that  hold  together 
the  great  contexture  of  this  mysterious  whole.  These  things 
do  not  make  your  government.  Dead  instruments,  passive 
tools  as  they  are,  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  constitution 
that  gives  all  their  life  and  efficacy  to  them.  Do  you  imagine 
that  here  in  England  it  is  the  land-tax  which  raises  your 
revenue  ?  that  it  is  the  annual  vote  in  the  Committee  of  Supply 
which  gives  you  your  army?  .  .  .  No !  surely  no  !  It  is  the 
love  of  the  people,  it  is  their  attachment  to  their  government 
from  the  sense  of  the  deep  stake  they  have  in  such  a  glorious 
institution,  which  gives  you  your  army  and  your  navy,  and 
infuses  into  both  that  liberal  obedience,  without  which  your 
army  would  be  a  base  rabble,  and  your  navy  nothing  but 
rotten  tinder.' 

On  January  12,  1887,  Mr.  John  Bright  expressed  as 
follows  his  doubts  as  to  the  need  for  Imperial  Federation  : 


160  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.  vn. 

'  I  cannot  attend  the  " federation"  meeting,  and  regret  to  have 
to  say  that  I  have  no  sympathy  with  its  object  and  purpose. 
Colonies  should  remain  attached  to  and  in  perfect  friendship 
with  the  mother-country,  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  any  attempt 
to  unite  them  by  political  bonds  more  closely  than  they  are  now 
connected  will  tend  not  so  much  to  permanent  union  as  to 
discord  and  separation.  England  will  not  be  governed  or  in 
any  degree  influenced  in  her  policy  by  Canada  or  Australia 
or  the  Cape.  The  colonies  will  not  allow  of  the  interference  of 
England  with  them,  with  their  laws  or  their  tariffs.  Eng- 
land's blind  foreign  policy  may  involve  us  in  wars  with  some 
one  or  with  several  of  the  European  powers — wars  in  which 
the  colonies  have  interest,  but  by  and  through  which  they 
may  be  subjected  to  serious  injury.  In  such  a  case  what  will 
happen  ?  The  federation  cord  will  be  strained  to  the  utter- 
most, it  will  probably  break  ;  the  colonies  will  prefer  separa- 
tion and  freedom  to  the  burdens  and  sufferings  which  their 
connexion  with  a  European  nation  through  their  mother- 
country  will  impose  upon  them.  How  would  your  federation 
deal  with  the  fisheries  dispute  between  Canada  and  the 
United  States  ?  If  Canada  were  an  independent  state  the 
dispute  would  soon  be  settled,  for  she  would  yield  to  the 
arguments  of  her  powerful  neighbour  ;  and  if  there  were  no 
Dominion  of  Canada  the  dispute  would  be  settled  by  English 
concession  of  the  reasonable  demands  of  the  Government  at 
Washington.  How  would  a  federation  composed  of  delegates 
or  representatives  from  the  colonies  of  Australia,  from  South 
Africa,  from  Canada,  and  perhaps  from  India,  deal  with  this 
fisheries  question  ?  The  federation  project  seems  to  me  to  be 
founded  alike  on  ignorance  of  history  and  of  geography.  I 
would  recommend  all  sensible  men  to  let  the  question  rest. 
If  we  are  conciliatory  and  just  to  the  colonies,  and  if  our 
foreign  policy  is  less  mad  than  it  has  been  during  much  of 
the  present  century,  we  may  hope  that  the  friendship  between 
Britain  and  her  daughter-states  may  long  continue  and  may 
strengthen.  If  changes  come  which  we  cannot  now  foresee,  but 
from  which  nations  cannot  escape,  and  if  separation  becomes 
necessary,  let  us  hope  that  what  will  be  done  will  be  done  in 


Ch.  vi i.j  The  Value  of  the  Political  Bond.  161 

peace  and  with  a  general  concurrence,  and  that  the  lustre  of 
the  English  name  and  fame  will  not  be  tarnished,  but  will 
receive  an  added  glory  from  the  greatness  and  the  prosperity 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  states  which  England  has  founded.' 

The  opinion  underlying  the  views  of  this  letter  is  the  same 
as  Burke's  :  that  political  ties  are  not  fundamental,  not  neces- 
sary to  peace,  unity,  and  concord.  There  are  other  bonds 
superior,  and  we  make  a  mistake  by  troubling  ourselves 
about  too  much  '  Government '  bonds  :  they  are  unnecessary 
where  there  is  unanimity  and  fellow-feeling,  valueless  where 
interests  clash  and  sentiments  are  hostile. 

It  should  be  remarked,  however,  that  Mr.  Bright  writes 
of  the  empire  as  it  is,  not  as  it  might  be.  He  allows 
nothing  for  the  consolidating  effects  of  common  government 
after  it  has  been  obtained :  his  argument  supposes  that  it  is 
a  perpetual  and  unchangeable  necessity  that  England  will 
not  in  any  degree  be  influenced  in  her  policy  by  her  colonies, 
nor  they  by  her.  Of  course  if  this  is  so,  no  more  is  to  be 
said.  Mr.  Bright  condemned  the  New  South  Wales  con- 
tingent to  the  Soudan,  not  only  as  against  his  principles  of 
peace,  but  because  the  colony  took  up  a  cause  in  which  she 
had  no  '  interest'  This  narrowness  of  view  as  to  what  may 
constitute  the  interest  of  a  community  must  be  remembered 
as  part  of  Mr.  Bright's  way  of  regarding  politics.  But  the 
inability  to  place  much  reliance  upon  Government  ties  is 
what  makes  his  letter  an  echo  of  Adam  Smith  and  Burke. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is  the  widespread  conviction  that 
trade  does  really  follow  the  flag  ;  that  it  is  not  a  question  of  a 
bit  of  bunting,  or  even  of  a  'live  colonial  Governor,'  but  that 
in  the  flag  there  is  a  magnetic  power  for  trade  which  cannot 
be  set  aside  as  unreal.  In  Chapter  viii  we  have  shown  that 
this  is  true,  and  why  it  is  true. 

Sir  Henry  Barkly,  for  instance,  who  has  served  as  Governor 
of  Jamaica,  Victoria,  and  the  Cape,  points  out,  as  'benefits  of 
remaining  attached  to  a  powerful  empire,  protection  against 
the  ambition  of  acquiring  distant  territories  at  a  time  when 
this  ambition  appears  more  rife  amongst  the  European  powers 
than  at  any  antecedent  period  in  history  ;  the  careers  open 

M 


1 62  The  Government  of  the  Empire.  [Ch.vii. 

to  colonial  youth  in  the  now  open  character  of  the  civil,  mili- 
tary, and  naval  service  of  the  empire,  colonial  university 
degrees  recognised,  cadetships  opened  at  Sandhurst,  and  for 
the  navy,  and  commissions  in  the  army,  with  examinations  in 
the  colonies  as  well  as  in  England.'  If  la  carriere  ouverte  aux 
talents  is  a  boon  to  a  country's  young  blood,  it  cannot  but  be 
stimulating  for  Canadian  and  Australian  youth  to  have  a 
common  career  with  youth  of  the  schools  and  universities  of 
England,  and  to  be  eligible  for  the  British  army  or  navy,  with 
all  their  glorious  history  behind  them,  or  the  civil  service  with 
traditions  of  centuries  and  worldwide  range.  These  things, 
by  their  very  nature,  appeal  to  the  most  ambitious  and 
generous  minds. 

No  one  can  deny  the  instability  of  the  present  situation. 
It  is  acknowledged  by  colonists  that  as  their  colonies  are 
filling  up  they  themselves  feel  that  their  patriotic  sentiments 
centre  there  more  and  more.  And  every  ten  years  adds 
perceptibly  to  the  relative  strength  of  those  born  in  the 
colonies,  to  whom  England  is  a  place  to  'visit,'  no  longer 
1  home.'  The  political  bonds  of  early  days  have  been  thrown 
off:  new  ones  must  be  such  as  can  be  voluntarily  entered 
into  and  voluntarily  maintained. 

The  Bond  of  Social  Dignity. 

The  student  of  the  English  constitution  who  neglects  to 
observe  the  distinction  between  formal  power  and  political 
influence  will  fail  to  understand  its  working.  Bagehot's  work, 
The  English  Constitution,  has  made  the  importance  of  the 
distinction  clear,  and  shows  how  effectively  the  '  Crown '  as 
a  '  source  of  dignity  '  and  '  fountain  of  honour '  assists  in  the 
actual  working  of  government.  Of  late  years  this  function 
of  the  Crown  has  been  applied  in  the  sphere  of  imperial  as 
distinct  from  national  policy.  No  list  of  honours  for  the 
Queen's  birthday  or  for  New  Year's  Day  is  now  issued  with- 
out a  large  proportion  of  awards  for  services  in  India  and 
the  colonies.  Ex-colonial  Governors  are  freely  called  to  the 
Privy  Council  itself,  and  colonial  Premiers  have  been 
similarly  honoured;  while  the  order  of  St.  Michael  and 


Ch.vii.]  Table  of  British  Colonies.  163 

St.  George  is  now  very  largely  conferred  for  services  in 
colonial  affairs,  both  on  Englishmen  employed  in  the  higher 
ranks  of  the  service  and  on  the  chief  public  men  in  the 
colonies;  and  many  others  have  been  created  Knights 
Bachelors  without  being  on  the  roll  of  any  order.  The 
order  of  the  Star  of  India  was  instituted  in  1861,  and  that 
of  the  Indian  Empire  in  1878,  for  services  in  India  or  in 
connexion  with  India  ;  and  the  order  of  the  Crown  of  India 
was  instituted  in  1878  for  ladies,  including  the  ladies  of  the 
Royal  Family  of  England,  Princesses  of  India,  and  wives 
and  daughters  of  high  officials.  It  is  supposed  that  this  is  an 
age  when  '  honours '  are  lightly  regarded,  and  ceremonial  a 
waste  of  time.  But  these  honours  are  far  from  being  regarded 
as  'barren' ;  not  only  is  cavil  disarmed  by  consideration  of 
the  eminent  men  who  bear  them,  but  there  is  diffused 
throughout  the  civil  and  judicial  services  of  India  and  the 
colonies  a  real  esteem  for  these  unmercenary  recognitions  of 
service  rendered  and  duties  successfully  discharged.  Their 
cementing  influence  will  be  disregarded  only  by  those  in 
whom  psychological  observation  of  men  as  they  are  is 
deficient  or  distorted.  And  judging  from  as  high  a  standard 
as  we  may  choose  to  take,  can  we  regard  as  frivolous  or 
unworthy  of  seriousness  such  ambitions  as  those  which,  in  the 
days  of  chivalry,  led  men  to  win  the  '  spurs '  of  knighthood  ? 
The  officials  and  the  public  men  of  an  empire  of  which  the 
foundations  were  laid  by  Raleighs  and  Gilberts  and  Drakes, 
gladdened  by  the  smiles  and  honours  bestowed  by  Queen 
Elizabeth,  are  not  likely  to  be  unmoved  by  enrolment  in 
gallant  orders  instituted  for  distinguished  service  by  Queen 
Victoria. 

Table  of  British  Colonies  classified  by  their  Political 
Status. 

Responsible.  Representative.  Crown. 

Dominion  of  Canada.  Bahamas.  Ceylon. 

Newfoundland.  Barbados.  Mauritius. 

New  South  Wales.  British  Guiana.  Straits  Settlements. 

Victoria.  Leeward  Islands.  Hong  Kong. 

South  Australia.  Windward  Islands.  Labuan. 
M  2 


1 64 


The  Government  of  the  Empire. 


Responsible. 
Tasmania. 
Queensland. 
New  Zealand. 
Western  Australia. 
Cape  of  Good  Hope. 


Representative.  Crown. 

Bermuda.  Fiji. 

Natal.  .         Jamaica. 

Malta.  Trinidad. 

Sierra  Leone. 
Gambia. 
Gold  Coast. 
Lagos. 

Falkland  Isles. 
Honduras. 
Gibraltar  (Military). 
St.  Helena. 

Ascension  (Admiralty). 
Subordinate : — Aden,  Perim,  Socotra. 

Rodrigues  Island,  Seychelles  and  Amirante  Islands, 

Chagos,  and  Oil  Islands  (Mauritius). 
Labrador  (Newfoundland). 
Turks  Islands  (Jamaica). 
Tobago  (Trinidad). 
South  Georgia  (Falkland). 

Basutoland,    British  Bechuanaland,   Zululand  (Cape 
Colony). 
Chartered  Companies : — N.  Borneo  ;  Br.  East  Africa ;  Br.  South  Africa. 
Protectorates : — Niger;  New  Guinea ;  Ishore,  &c.  in  Malay  Peninsula  ;\ 
Sarawak ;    Farther    Bechuanaland ;   Transvaal ;    ) 
Somali  Coast. 
(Special)  Foreign  Office : — Egypt,  Cyprus,  Zanzibar. 
Sphere  of  Influence: — In  various  parts  of  Africa. 

Some  idea  of  the  relative  importance  of  the  work  of  govern- 
ing the  different  colonies  may  be  gathered  from  the  salaries 
allotted  to  some  Governors,  although  in  Responsible  colonies 
this  depends  on  the  colonial  government.  India,  .£24,000 
(about) ;  Bengal  (Lieutenant-Governor),  ,£10,000 ;  Madras, 
,£12,000;  Bombay,  £12,000;  Canada,  £10,000;  Victoria, 
£10,000;  New  Zealand,  £7500 ;  N.  S.  Wales,  £7000  ;  the 
Cape,  £6000  ;  Queensland,  £5000 ;  Jamaica,  £6000 ; 
Malta,  £5000;  Natal,  £4000;  Trinidad,  £4000;  Barbados, 
£3000;  Honduras,  £1800;  Gold  Coast,  £3500;  Falkland 
Isles,  £1000;  St.  Helena,  £900. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Trade  and  Trade  Policy. 

In  turning  now  to  Trade,  taken  generally  to  designate  the 
production  and  exchange  of  wealth,  we  come,  in  the  opinion 
of  some  who  consider  themselves  versed  in  colonial  affairs, 
to  the  gist  and  core  of  the  whole  matter.  Of  what  use  are 
the  colonies  to  us  ?  it  is  asked  at  home,  and  the  meaning  is, 
how  do  they  assist  us  in  relation  to  the  material  elements  of 
our  national  well-being  ?  Of  what  use  is  the  mother-country 
to  us  t  colonists  ask,  with  the  same  tangible  object  before 
their  minds.  They  acknowledge  that  empire,  influence,  the 
peopling  of  the  world,  the  extension  of  civilization,  the 
propagation  of  religious  and  moral  ideas,  may  rightly  exercise 
motive-power  in  some  minds ;  but  they  take  these  to  be 
ideals  ;  whereas  for  real  historical  interest  or  for  practical 
future  policy  they  wish  to  know  what  has  been  done  mutually 
between  England  and  her  colonies  for  the  material  ag- 
grandizement of  the  one  and  the  material  raising  up  of  the 
other,  before  they  stand  on  solid  ground  of  universal  and 
abiding  interest.  Though  this  opinion  may  be  sometimes 
felt  and  expressed  in  a  crude  and  selfish  form,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  in  modern  European  colonies  the  acquisition 
of  wealth  in  the  mother-countries  and  the  fostering  of 
material  progress  in  the  colonies  has  been  the  primary 
and  the  most  prominent  operative  aim  throughout.  Other 
objects  have  been  secondary  and  obscure,  this  has  been  in 
the  front :  other  objects — religious  influence,  for  example — 
have  been  taken  in  hand  by  private  societies  and  by  notable 
individuals ;  this  has  been  more  or  less  an  affair  of  State, 
affecting  profoundly  our  attitude  to  the  colonies  and  our 
policy  towards  the  other  nations  and  races  of  the  world. 


1 66  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

Yet  Adam  Smith  begins  his  chapter — the  famous  Chapter 
viz  of  Book  IV,  'Of  Colonies,'  unequalled  in  its  way  as 
an  example  of  historical  and  practical  study — with  this  state- 
ment : — '  The  interest  which  occasioned  the  first  settlement 
of  the  different  European  colonies  in  America  and  the  West 
Indies  was  not  altogether  so  plain  and  distinct  as  that  which 
directed  the  establishment  of  those  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome.'  Emigration  he  shows  to  have  been  '  the  plain  and 
distinct  interest'  underlying  Greek  colonization,  and  in 
combination  with  military  occupation,  underlying  Roman 
colonization  also.  But  for  European  colonization  there  was  no 
such  necessity,  while  the  utility,  although  it  has  since  become 
very  great,  is  not  altogether  so  evident ;  it  was  not  the  only 
motive  of  their  establishment,  and  was,  indeed,  only  partially 
understood  at  the  time  at  which  he  was  writing.  He  then 
shows  how  the  Portuguese  were  in  search  of  a  trade  similar 
to  that  which  was  enriching  Venice,  and  were  not  seeking 
to  colonize  ;  while  America  fell  to  Spain  almost  by  chance, 
we  might  say,  and  it  was  only  the  discovery  of  its  gold  and 
silver  that  caused  her  to  take  much  notice  of  what  had  hap- 
pened. Portugal  settled  down  to  trade,  and  Spain,  favoured  by 
'a  course  of  accidents  which  no  human  wisdom  could  foresee,' 
found  herself  in  the  possession  of  the  mines  of  Mexico  and 
Peru.  The  English,  Dutch,  and  French  joined  in  the  double 
chase  for  gold  and  for  Oriental  wealth,  but  so  far  as  America 
— which  became  the  seat  of  the  most  flourishing  centres  of 
colonization— is  concerned,  they  found  neither  of  these,  but 
something  else. 

Whatever  the  originating  motives,  the  issue,  as  we  have 
seen,  has  been  the  expansion  of  Europe  and  the  growth  of 
new  centres  of  European  industry  and  new  sources  of  wealth 
for  Europe  in  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  the  five 
European  colonizing  nations. 

Causes  of  Rapid  Economic  Development. 

In  the  growth  of  our  colonies  signal  examples  of  rapid 
development  of  prosperous  and  well-organized  communities 
are  offered  to  the  political  economist.     Wastes  have  become 


Ch.  viii.]     Causes  of  Rapid  Economic  Development.       167 

inhabited ;  river-basins  and  sea-coasts  have  become  the 
seats  of  cities,  towns,  villages,  and  farmsteads,  and  all  in  full 
view  of  scientific  investigation,  their  origin  known,  their  pro- 
gress all  recorded.  The  phenomenon  is  not  new,  however — 
history  has  repeated  itself;  the  multiplying  power  of  man- 
kind and  the  productiveness  of  wealth,  when  new  openings  are 
offered  to  developed  communities,  have  been  demonstrated 
before.  Syracuse  and  Agrigentum,  Tarentum  and  Ephesus, 
soon  rivalled  their  mother-cities,  and  Carthage  rose  to  a  popu- 
lation and  influence  surpassing  that  of  Tyre.  Still  the  rapidity 
of  growth  of  our  English  colonies — to  limit  our  view  to  these — 
is  very  striking.  We  see  Melbourne,  although  only  forty  years 
old,  already  larger  than  Bristol  with  six  centuries  of  prosperity 
behind  it ;  Toronto,  a  village  a  hundred  years  ago,  a  busier 
and  more  progressive  hive  of  industry  than  ancient  and  not 
unprosperous  cities  like  Norwich  and  Nottingham  ;  Montreal 
richer  than  Hull,  although  Hull  was  a  town  and  port  of  sub- 
stance and  repute  while  Indians  had  wigwams  on  the  island 
now  covered  with  the  buildings  and  docks  of  the  '  Mount 
Royal.'  And  if  we  look  at  the  virtually  colonial  cities  of 
Philadelphia,  surpassing  even  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  the 
pride  of  Lancashire  ;  Chicago  overtopping  Glasgow,  the 
wonder  of  Scotland  ;  and  New  York,  having  long  passed 
Venice,  Amsterdam,  Berlin,  and  Vienna,  already  level  with 
Paris,  and  expected  to  overtake  London  in  1920, — we  feel 
that  we  breathe  in  a  spacious  atmosphere,  and  our  political 
economy  should,  on  this  large  scale,  easily  show  us  the  springs 
and  forces  of  industrial  activity.  Taking  as  our  basis  Adam 
Smith's  summary— plenty  of  good  land,  law  and  order,  agri- 
culture and  the  arts,  and  elaborating  the  analysis,  we  may  set 
down  as  the  causes  of  the  rapid  prosperity  of  new  colonies  : — 

Plenty  of  good  land.  The  timber  forests  and  great  wheat- 
fields  of  Canada  ;  the  sheep  pastures  of  Australia  and 
the  Cape  ;  the  gold-fields  of  Victoria  ;  the  sugar  plantations 
of  the  West  Indies  ;  these  have  proved  good  '  land '  indeed  in 
the  hands  of  the  families  of  Englishmen,  Welshmen,  Scotch- 
men, and  Irishmen  who  have  gone  out  to  work  them. 

Freedom  in  the  employment  of  land  and  absence  of  diver- 


i68  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

sion  ofportio?ts  of  the  produce  into  quarters  where  no  pro- 
ductive use  was  made  of  it.  It  is  not  only  the  amount  of 
wealth,  but  the  hands  into  which  it  goes,  that  affects  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  ;  and  in  the  colonies  the  claims  and  liens  of 
the  consumers  who — without  reproach,  be  it  understood — in 
Economics  are  regarded  as  '  unproductive,'  were  trivial :  in 
the  early  days  of  most  colonies  the  whole  of  the  produce  was 
practically  in  the  hands  of  the  cultivators,  and  after  supporting 
the  cultivators,  immense  quantities  of  wealth  were  available 
for  further  employment  as  capital  in  the  vast  regions  lying 
unoccupied  over  their  fences  or  just  outside  their  towns. 
This  enabled  them  to  offer  prodigiously  high  wages,  and 
the  rapid  accumulation  of  savings  enabled  labourers  very 
quickly  to  leave  the  wage-class  and  themselves  to  offer 
wages  to  new  comers ;  as  a  consequence  the  increase  of 
population  was  stimulated  and  supported  both  by  increase 
within  and  by  immigration  from  without. 

The  production  of  monopoly  products.  This  acted  either  ( I ) 
absolutely,  as  in  the  case  of  tobacco  which  enriched  Virginia, 
as  it  could  not  be  grown  in  Europe,  or  (2)  relatively,  as  the 
wool  of  Australia,  capable  of  being  grown  in  Europe,  but  not  in 
the  quantities  required.  Canada  in  1884  exported  j6  million 
dollars'  worth  of  her  own  products,  of  which  21  were  products 
of  the  forest,  40  of  the  field,  and  8  of  the  sea.  Victoria  ex- 
ported 6  million  pounds'  worth  of  wool  and  4  of  gold,  out  of 
a  total  export  of  16  millions. 

Capital  borrowed 'from  home.  This  cause  was  always  in 
operation  ;  the  original  companies  supplied  capital  in  the  days 
of  the  infancy  of  the  American  colonies,  and  emigrants  usually 
took  some  out  with  them,  either  their  own  or  borrowed.  The 
ability  of  England  to  supply  capital  has  been  a  factor  of  first- 
rate  importance  throughout,  both  for  America  and  Australia. 
But  since  the  extension  of  banking  and  the  development 
of  joint-stock  enterprise,  capital  has  flowed  out  freely,  from 
England  especially.  In  New  Zealand,  for  example,  in  early 
days  in  the  '40's  and  '50's  settlers  borrowed  at  20  and  15  per 
cent. ;  but  the  tide  has  proved  so  strong  that  they  can  now, 
by  means   of  bank  trusts   and   syndicates,   obtain   all  that 


Ch.viii.]     Causes  of  Rapid  Economic  Development.        169 

they  require  at  6  and  5,  and  their  local  boards  and  muni- 
cipalities can  borrow  freely  at  about  4.  And  it  is  further 
to  be  noticed  that  the  colonists  have  borrowed  capital  on 
their  prospective  development.  Confidence  in  colonial  sta- 
bility being  firmly  secured,  they  have  no  difficulty  in  obtaining 
loans  for  thirty  years,  which  they  could  not  repay  now,  but 
will  be  able  to  discharge  when  those  thirty  years  have 
gone.  Professor  Marshall  goes  so  far  as  to  state  that  this 
is  the  principal  cause  of  their  prosperity.  '  After  all,  the 
chief  cause  of  the  modern  prosperity  of  new  countries  lies  in 
the  markets  that  the  old  world  offers,  not  for  goods  delivered 
on  the  spot,  but  for  promises  to  deliver  goods  at  a  distant 
date.  ...  In  one  form  or  another  they  mortgage  their  new 
property  to  the  old  world  at  a  very  high  rate  of  interest  .  .  . 
and  a  vast  stream  of  capital  flows  to  the  new  country.' — 
Principles  of  Economics,  p.  713. 

Immigration  of  adult  workers.  The  colonies  have  not 
had  to  rear  and  educate  their  population.  This  has  been 
done  for  them,  very  largely,  by  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
A  Registrar-General  estimated  that  it  cost  ,£175  to  bring  up 
an  Englishman  to  his  twenty-first  year:  on  this  estimate 
Australia  has  received  from  the  mother-country  a  gift  of  at 
least  ^175,000,000  in  thirty  years. 

Skill  and  knowledge  ready  to  hand.  The  whole  range  of 
the  arts  and  sciences  elaborated  slowly  during  many  centuries 
in  Europe  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  colonists. 

Machinery  and  tools  invented  and  made.  The  products  of 
Birmingham  and  Sheffield  are  at  their  disposal ;  implements 
of  every  kind  can  be  had.  They  have  only  to  pay  for  them, 
not  to  invent  them. 

Manufacturing  and  trading  done  for  them.  They  can 
devote  themselves  to  their  special  and  particular  advantages 
in  their  new  land.  Their  clothes  are  delivered  in  bales  at 
their  doors,  ships  are  waiting  in  their  harbours  to  carry 
their  produce  swiftly  to  the  market. 

To  these  industrial  advantages  we  must  not  fail  to  add 
that  advantage  upon  which  Adam  Smith  so  much  loves  to 


i  jo  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

subordination,  some  notion  of  the  regular  government  which 
takes  place  in  their  own  country,  of  the  system  of  laws  which 
supports  it,  and  of  a  regular  administration  of  justice,' — all 
at  their  disposal,  he  might  have  added,  without  battles  of 
Hastings  and  Bannockburn,  and  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and 
Nasebys ;  these  privileges  had  been  obtained  for  them 
before  in  blood  ;  barons  and  retainers,  knights'  services  and 
freemen's  aids,  castles  frowning  over  the  land,  and  all  the 
apparatus  of  feudalism,  had  done  their  work  in  the  old 
islands,  and  the  work  had  not  to  be  done  again.  And 
against  foreign  foes  there  were  no  battles  of  Crecy  to  fight, 
no  Armadas  to  resist,  no  Blenheims  and  Fontenoys  to 
draw  off  their  energy  and  engulf  their  '  net-returns.'  The 
harassing  danger  from  the  Red  Indian  and  the  Maori 
was  serious  enough  where  felt,  but  it  was  partial  and 
temporary,  never  severely  absorbing  or  distracting  on  any 
great  scale.  If  discipline  of  this  kind  is  essential  to  fibre, 
the  Australian  colonists,  at  least,  have  their  schooling  yet  to 
come.     Is  China  to  be  the  scourge  ? 

Each  of  these  causes  would  have  gone  some  way  to  explain 
the  rapidity  of  colonial  progress  ;  several  of  them  in  com- 
bination would  have  gone  an  incalculably  long  way;  the 
combined  action  of  them  all,  especially  in  the  case  of  the 
Australian  colonies,  is  an  explanation  adequate  even  for  the 
progress  before  our  view  \ 

Effect  on  Course  of  Industry. 

For  many  years  the  course  of  industrial  development  in  the 
colonies  was  quite  simple.  They  were  free  to  devote  themselves 

1  The  above  analysis  finds  confirmation  in  the  recently  published 
treatise  of  Professor  Marshall,  Principles  of  Economics,  published 
1890.  With  admirable  fulness  and  succinctness  of  statement,  Mr. 
Marshall  summarizes  his  view,  p.  251 : — 

'  In  all  ages  colonies  have  been  apt  to  outstrip  their  mother-coun- 
tries in  vigour  and  energy.  This  has  been  due  partly  to  the  abundance 
of  land,  and  the  cheapness  of  necessaries  at  their  command  ;  partly 
to  that  natural  selection  of  the  strongest  characters  for  a  life  of 
adventure ;  and  partly  to  physiological  causes  connected  with  the 
mixture  of  races :  but  perhaps  the  most  important  cause  of  all  is  to  be 
found  in  the  hope,  the  freedom,  and  the  changefulness  of  their  lives.' 


Ch.viii.]  Effect  on  Course  of  Industry.  171 

to  what  is  known  as  the  agricultural  phase  of  industrial  life, 
the  raising  of  the  raw  materials  required  for  human  needs 
and  comforts.  Tropical  and  sub-tropical  colonies  found 
ample  market  for  their  special  products  among  the  European 
nations,  who  learned  new  wants  as  these  supplies  opened  out. 
Not  many  years  were  required  to  raise  the  consumption  of 
Virginian  tobacco  and  Jamaican  sugar,  rum,  and  molasses 
to  a  point  which  gave  heavy  and  increasing  profit  to  the 
raising  of  those  products  ;  while  spices,  coffee,  cocoa,  and 
tea  gradually  became  regular  constituents  of  the  daily 
meals  of  Europeans.  Timber  from  Canada  was  required  to 
make  up  for  the  forests  cleared  away  in  England,  and  wool 
to  satisfy  the  demand  for  cloth,  which  had  far  outgrown  the 
supply  from  the  sheep  of  these  comparatively  small  islands. 
Corn,  cattle,  and  fish  have  been  required  in  constantly  in- 
creasing quantity.  In  the  colonies  Nature  offered  so  liberally 
and  so  easily  the  first-hand  produce  of  her  soil  that  it  would 
have  been  almost  perverse  to  have  turned  to  the  secondary 
processes.    A  change  however  has  begun. 

On  Great  Britain  the  effect  was  similar,  but  in  the  reverse 
direction.  Her  colonies,  by  supplying  this  raw  material, 
saved  her  from  pressing  agriculture  to  the  point  of  diminish- 
ing returns,  and  gave  her  free  course  for  development  in 
manufacture  and  trade.  Five  great  advantages  possessed 
by  her  were  brought  out  into  full  effect : — 

(i)  Her  supplies  of  coal  and  iron,  placed  as  they  are  in 
convenient  and  economical  juxtaposition. 

(ii)    Her  atmosphere,  specially  suitable  for  weaving. 

(iii)  Her  seafaring  instincts  and  aptitudes. 

(iv)  Her  aptitude  for  practical  science  in  all  departments 
of  mechanical  invention,  notably,  of  course,  in  the 
inventions  of  weaving  and  spinning  machinery  and 
in  the  application  of  steam. 

(v)  Her  aptitude  for  industrial  and  commercial  organiza- 
tion in  response  to  changed  needs  and  opportunities. 

Hence  it  was  that  just  at  the  close  of  last  century  England 
had  finally  ceased  to  be  an  exporter  of  corn,  and  was 
winning  her  way  into  all  markets  for  woollen,  cotton,  and 


172 


Trade  and  Trade  Policy. 


[Ch.VIII. 


linen  manufactures.  And  she  was  on  her  way  to  her 
astonishing  pre-eminence  in  sea-going  trade,  in  which  she 
was  to  employ  half  the  shipping  of  the  world. 


1886 


1836 


Fifty  Years'  Growth  of  the  Trade  of  the  British 
Empire. 

A  represents  Trade  of  U.  K.  in  1836. 

B  represents  Trade  of  Colonies,  &c,  in  1836. 

A'  represents  Trade  of  U.  K.  in  1886. 

B'  represents  Trade  of  Colonies,  &c.,  in  1886. 

The  closeness  of  our  trade  relations  with  our  present 
colonies  and  possessions  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  their 
average  trade  with  us  (in  the  years  1 880-1 883)  was  199 
millions,  out  of  a  gross  429  millions,  notwithstanding  all 
counter-influences  of  distance,  convenience,  suitableness  of 
products,  and  competition  of  commercial  rivals.  On  the 
other  hand,  our  trade  with  them  was   186  millions  out  of 


Ch.VIII.j 


Trade  Policy. 


173 


715,  about  one-fourth  ;  while  French  colonies  contributed 
but  21  millions  out  of  the  gross  French  trade  of  425,  about 
one-twentieth  of  the  whole.  Holland's  was  about  the  same 
fraction  as  that  of  France,  Spain's  about  o?ie-tenth,  Portugal's 
about  one-fiftieth. 


□ 


BRITISH 


□  n 

DANISH  PORTUGUESE 


Trade  of  European  Countries  with  their  Dependencies. 

Average  Annual  Value  1880-82.    Rawson, 

Statistical  Society,  1884. 


Trade  Policy. 

Monopoly  Period. 
The  European  nations  began  colonization  with  the  idea 
that  new  countries  would  be  the  possessions  of  the  old,  and 
their  policy  in  relation  to  trade  was  the  carrying  out  of  this 
idea.  The  Crown  of  Spain,  by  its  share  of  gold  and 
silver,  derived  some  revenue  from  its  colonies  from  their 
first  establishment,  and  they  therefore  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  mother-country  from  the  outset.  This  was 
not  the  case  with  the  other  settlements  in  America;  the 
Portuguese  paid  little  heed  to  Brazil,  for  example,  which 
caused  Adam  Smith  caustically  to  remark  that  perhaps  the 
Spanish  did  not  thrive  the  better  in  consequence  of  attention, 


174  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

nor  the  Portuguese  the  worse  in  consequence  of  neglect. 
He  is  somewhat  inconsistent,  however,  for  a  little  farther  on  he 
candidly  says  that  the  Swedish  colony  might  have  prospered 
had  it  not  been  neglected  by  Sweden  ;  but  the  former  opinion 
is  reasserted  when  he  comes  to  mention  the  rapid  increase  of 
prosperity  of  the  French  colony  of  St.  Domingo  during  a 
period  when  it  neither  required  the  protection  nor  ac- 
knowledged the  authority  of  the  home  government  to  any 
substantial  extent. 

When  our  colonization  had  thoroughly  settled  down  we 
applied  to  our  American  and  West  Indian  colonies  the  prin- 
ciple of  monopoly  of  their  trade.  It  was  not  applied  abso- 
lutely and  entirely,  but  just  so  far  as,  and  in  such  kinds  as,  our 
own  interests  dictated.  Our  method  was  not  so  narrow  as 
that  of  Spain,  which  limited  all  trade  to  two  ports  in  America, 
Vera  Cruz  and  Carthagena,  and  two  in  Spain,  Cadiz  and 
Seville;  nor  did  we  hand  it  over  to  exclusive  companies  as 
Denmark,  Portugal,  and,  occasionally,  France  did.  But 
France  later  on,  and  ourselves  almost  from  the  beginning,  laid 
down  certain  conditions  under  which  trade  was  confined  to 
the  mother-country ;  outside  these  limits  the  colonies  might 
sell  and  buy  where  they  could.  The  Eastern  trade  was  the 
monopoly  of  the  East  India  Company. 

We  divided  their  produce  into  two  great  classes  :  (i) 
Enumerated,  i.e.  scheduled  in  the  act  of  navigation  and 
some  subsequent  acts,  and  (ii)  Non-ENUMERATED.  The 
Enumerated  commodities  were  either  such  produce  as  we 
needed  but  could  not  produce  at  home,  such  as  molasses, 
coffee,  tobacco,  ginger,  cotton,  furs,  dyeing  woods ;  or  such 
as  we  could  produce  at  home,  but  not  in  sufficient  quantities, 
such  as  naval  stores  made  of  timber,  pig  and  bar  iron,  tar, 
turpentine,  hides  and  skins.  The  former  we  appropriated 
in  order  to  get  them  more  cheaply  by  having  them  direct 
from  the  producers ;  the  latter  we  appropriated  in  order  to 
avoid  buying  from  our  rivals,  the  foreign  nations,  as 
it  was  a  cardinal  point  of  the  prevailing  policy  to  pre- 
serve a  '  balance  of  trade '  by  selling  as  much  and  pur- 
chasing as  little  as  possible  in  foreign  parts. 


Ch.  viii.]  Trade  Policy.  17 S 

The  Non-enumerated  commodities  might  be  exported  by 
the  colonies  to  other  countries  provided  it  was  in  British  or 
Colonial  ships.  They  included  grain  of  all  sorts,  lumber, 
salt  provisions,  fish,  and  (after  1731)  sugar  and  rum. 

Perfect  freedom  was  permitted  amongst  the  colonies 
themselves,  both  on  the  continent  of  America  and  in  the 
West  Indies. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  were  limited  as  to  their  buying 
from  us.  They  were  not  allowed  to  set  up  such  manufac- 
tures as  would  remove  the  necessity  of  their  resort  to  the 
British  market,  except  in  very  rudimentary  stages,  e.g. 
shaping  lumber  into  masts  and  yards.  Sugar  might  not  be 
refined ;  no  steel  might  be  forged,  even  for  their  own  con- 
sumption ;  no  woollen  goods  might  be  sent  from  one  province 
to  another,  though  persons  might  weave  for  immediate 
neighbours. 

Unjust  as  these  regulations  appeared  to  Adam  Smith,  he 
is  himself  scrupulously  fair  in  pointing  out  that  they  were 
not  very  hurtful  to  the  colonies  in  their  effect :  — 

(i)  The  interest  of  the  colonists  was  so  plainly  to  devote 
themselves  to  the  land  and  very  simple  processes  of  manu- 
facture that  the  regulations  were  rather  '  impertinent  badges 
of  slavery '  than  actually  detrimental  to  their  prosperity. 

(ii)  Great  Britain  gave  them  considerable  advantages  in 
her  own  market.  She  favoured  them  by  imposing  lighter 
duties  on  some  of  their  produce  than  were  imposed  upon 
foreign  goods ;  colonial  sugar,  tobacco,  and  iron  were  thus 
helped,  and  she  even  gave  bounties  on  their  raw  silk,  hemp 
and  flax,  indigo,  naval  stores,  and  building  timber. 

(iii)  She  gave  the  same  drawbacks  on  foreign  goods 
brought  to  England  and  paying  duty  on  landing  when  taken 
out  for  exportation  to  the  colonies  as  when  going  to  other 
foreign  countries,  so  that  consumers  in  Massachusetts 
received  such  goods  without  the  duty  which  was  paid  by 
consumers  in  Yorkshire  or  Scotland. 

The  net  result  of  the  policy  up  to  Adam  Smith's  time 
(1776)  maybe  said  to  be  that  our  artificial  regulations  did 
not  largely  alter  the  ?iatural  course  of  industrial  develop- 


176  Trade  and  Trade  Policy,  [Ch.viii. 

ment  in  our  colonies.  If  we  confined  them  in  some  respects 
to  our  market  for  the  disposal  of  their  produce,  our  market 
was,  after  all,  the  best  in  the  world  ;  and  if  we  compelled 
them  to  buy  our  manufactures  and  to  use  our  shipping,  we 
were  certainly  the  cheapest  of  manufacturers,  and  had  the 
most  efficient  shipping  to  offer  them.  In  fact  our  policy  was 
the  expression  of  the  political  economy  of  the  time,  or  rather 
of  mercantile  policy  before  it  had  acquired  scientific  prin- 
ciples as  its  basis,  and  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  merchants 
aiming  at  profit  and  filled  with  the  idea  of  the  balance  of 
trade.  But  the  policy  was  artificial,  and  it  received  two 
fatal  blows  just  at  the  same  time.  In  1776  the  situation 
was  altered  by  the  Declaration  of  Indepe?idence  on  the  part 
of  the  Thirteen  Colonies,  and  in  the  same  year  the  ideas  at 
the  basis  of  the  policy  were  exploded  by  the  publication  of 
the  Wealth  of  Nations.  By  the  one  stroke  the  fabric  itself 
was  rudely  shattered,  by  the  other  foundations  were  laid  for 
a  new  fabric,  partly  built  with  remaining  material,  but  partly 
quite  new1. 

1  Adam  Smith  adds  a  long  argument  to  show  that  our  Home 
industry  had  really  suffered  by  the  monopoly  of  colonial  trade. 
He  considers  that  the  advantage  we  gained  from  it  was  only  a  relative 
one,  giving  us  superiority  in  comparison  with  other  countries ;  but 
that,  absolutely,  taking  our  own  country  alone,  we  should  have  been 
better  off  without  it.  It  withdrew  capital  from  our  home  trade,  and 
from  our  trade  with  the  continent  of  Europe  ;  it  kept  up  a  high  rate 
of  profit,  and  put  us  at  a  disadvantage  in  other  markets :  it  set  up  a 
considerable  roundabout  trade  (e.  g.  of  96,000  hogsheads  of  tobacco 
which  we  imported  we  sent  out  82,000  again  to  the  continent), 
and  so  kept  capital  inefficiently  employed.  It  narrowed  our 
home  industry  into  working  for  one  great  market  in  place  of 
the  more  healthy  and  more  secure  development  where  many  chan- 
nels are  open.  The  colonial  trade,  if  left  free,  would  have  done  us 
good  ;  the  forcing  it  by  the  "monopoly  regulations  was  hurtful. 
Professor  Nicholson  points  out  in  his  note  that  the  supporters  of  the 
mercantile  policy  would  not  on  the  whole  have  been  moved  by  this 
argument,  as  relative  superiority,  '  balance  of  power,'  was  with  them 
the  great  object  as  leading  to  their  supreme  economic  goal,  favour- 
able '  balance  of  trade.' 

The  history  of  Trading  Companies  with  exclusive  privileges  fur- 
nishes a  chapter  of  considerable  interest  to  the  political  economist. 
In  these  days  especially,  when  aggregation  is  the  prevailing  tendency 
in  industrial  organization,  when  conglomerations  of  companies,  firms, 


Ch.viii.]  Free  Trade.  \77 

Free  Trade. 
The  movement  towards  a  different  trade  policy  in  our 
remaining  colonies  and  our  fresh  acquisitions  was  a  part  of 

and  persons  are  forming  themselves  into  •  Syndicates '  to  absorb  the 
whole  production  of  some  staple  of  consumption — copper  syndicates, 
salt  syndicates,  and  so  on — the  working  of  the  great  companies  in 
the  days  of  our  earlier  colonization  will  be  found  very  instructive. 
The  only  difference  is  that  the  old  companies  were  privileged  by 
Government,  while  the  syndicates  are  voluntary  associations  :  but  as 
it  was  '  smuggling'  and  « interloping'  that  ruined  the  former  system, 
it  is  possible  that  the  voluntary  associations  may  prove  unable  to 
crush  private  enterprise. 

Adam  Smith  allows  companies  for  colonization  and  trade  to 
be  necessary  for  poor  countries  like  Sweden  and  Denmark,  where 
shareholders  must  be  attracted  by  privilege  and  security  against 
competitors;  otherwise  they  will  not  hazard  their  small  capitals. 
But  rich  countries  with  abundant  capital  would,  he  thinks,  send 
out  more  ships,  not  less,  if  trade  were  not  confined,  and  on  the 
whole  he  thinks  Sweden  and  Norway  ill-advised  in  attempting 
on  their  narrow  means  to  enter  on  such  a  trade  at  all ;  they  would 
do  better  to  buy  East  Indian  produce  from  Holland.  The  Dutch 
East  India  Company  is  convicted  of  gross  dereliction  of  duty,— -if  it  is 
regarded  as  a  national  institution  at  all, — in  its  '  savage  policy '  of 
destroying  produce  when  the  supply  would  be  too  great  to  enable 
them  to  keep  up  the  most  profitable  price,  a  procedure  known  to-day 
as  '  limiting  the  output ; '  and  the  East  India  Company  in  regulating 
the  crops  of  opium  and  rice  according  to  its  own  estimate  of  what 
they  could  best  make  pay.  Such  proceedings,  aiming  simply  at 
the  profit  of  the  shareholders,  entirely  unfitted  these  companies  for 
sovereign  power. 

Privileged  companies  were  not  long  required  for  English  coloniza- 
tion and  trade ;  they  started  the  American  colonies  and  then  soon 
disappeared.  The  East  India  Company  was  the  only  one  which 
had  a  long  history,  and  it  was  shorn  of  its  privileges  one  by  one  in 
the  course  of  years.  In  1793,  at  the  renewal  of  its  charter,  a 
*  searching  enquiry '  was  made  into  the  effect  of  the  monopoly ;  at 
the  next  renewal  in  18-13  the  Indian  trade  was  thrown  open  (not  the 
Chinese  or  other  Eastern  trade) ,  and  in  the  very  next  year  the  private 
trade  just  exceeded  the  Company's  —  £4,435,000  to  £4.208,000. 
Next  year  the  proportion  was  even  greater.  When  the  next  date  for 
renewal  arrived  the  monopoly  was  discontinued  entirely,  and  not 
only  India  but  China  and  the  East  were  thrown  open  so  far  as 
British  trade  was  concerned. 

In  the  desolate  regions  to  the  north  and  west  of  our  settlements  in 
Canada  fur  trading  would  not  have  been  carried  on  at  all  excepting  by 
the  Company  plan.    Accordingly,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  re- 

N 


178  Trade  and  Trade  Policy,  [Ch.viii. 

that  general  movement  which,  seventy  years  after  the  publi- 
cation of  our  great  classical  work  in  Political  Economy, 
issued  in  the  adoption  of  Free  Trade  in  1846.  Freedom 
from  all  Government  regulation,  control,  and  direction, 
liberty  to  resort  to  the  cheapest  market  for  buying  and  the 
dearest  for  selling,  were  to  be  the  natural  bases  for  our 
enterprise  henceforth. 

The  change  took  place  by  stages.  Pitt,  a  pupil  of  Adam 
Smith,  took  some  steps,  especially  in  the  consolidation  of  the 
Customs;  and  those  very  mercantile  classes  whom  Adam 
Smith  had  so  thoroughly  distrusted  soon  began  to  see 
where  their  interest  lay.  In  the  famous  petition  of  the 
London  merchants  in  1820,  Free  Trade  principles  were  ex- 
plicitly laid  down,  and  all  restrictions,  except  for  revenue, 
were  denounced.  The  Edinburgh  Chamber  of  Commerce 
petitioned  in  the  same  spirit.  With  political  economists  and 
merchants  pressing  in  the  same  direction,  it  remained  only 
for  the  statesmen  in  front  to  move.  Mr.  Huskisson  was 
the  statesman  who  directed  the  progress.  The  Navigation 
Act  was  relaxed  in  various  directions,  both  as  to  countries 
and  commodities;  heavy  protective  duties  against  foreign 
cotton,  woollen,  linen,  silk,  leather,  and  iron  manufactures 
were  substantially  lightened  by  Mr.  Huskisson  before  his 
death  at  the  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
railway  in  1830.  In  1842  Sir  Robert  Peel  took  up  the 
movement,  which  culminated  in  the  successful  opposition  to 
the  Corn  Laws  by  Cobden  and  Bright  and  the  Anti-Corn 
Law  League  and  their  abolition  in  1846,  and  ended  in  the 
abolition  of  the  famous  old  Navigation  Act  in  1850,  which, 
after  two  hundred  years  of  service  in  the  building  up  of 
England's  trade  and  empire,  passed  away  into  the  limbo 
of  history. 

In  the  colonies  themselves,  however,  a  return  to  re- 
tained its  privileges  and  powers  for  many  years.  As  lands  were  taken 
up  for  occupation  they  were  removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Company,  e.g.  British  Columbia  in  1858.  In  1868  all  territorial 
jurisdiction  was  taken  away,  but  trading  privileges  are  not  yet 
abolished. 


Ch.viii.]  Free  Trade.  179 

strictive  policy  has  taken  place.    Two  reforms  were  effected 
in  the  same  generation— the  adoption  of  Freedom  of  Trade 
by  England,  and  the  granting  of  Responsible  Government 
by  her  to  some  of  her  chief  daughter-colonies.    With  what 
result  ?    That  the  political  freedom  acquired  by  the  colonies 
was  used  to  set  up  barriers  and  restrictions  in  industry  and 
trade !    Freedom  was  used  as  a  means  of  returning  to  Arti- 
fice and  Interference.    The  old  restriction  by  enumerated 
and  non-enumerated  commodities  was  finally  abandoned  on 
the  part  of  the  mother-country,  but  the  colonies  at  once 
set  about  devising  methods  of  arranging  their  trafficking  so 
as  to  secure  for  themselves  the  incoming  and  outgoing  of 
commodities  according  to   their  judgment  of  where  their 
own  advantage  lay.    When  Responsible  Government  was 
granted  it  might  have  been  expected  that  regulation  of  trade 
would  have  been  reserved  as  an  Imperial  affair.     But  the 
granting  of  the  new  constitution  to  Canada  and  the  Aus- 
tralian colonies  came  at  the  moment  of  the  flush  of  the  Free 
Trade  victory.     In  the  freshness  of  that  triumph,  hopes 
were  strong  that  the  victory  won  for.  Free  Trade  in  England 
was  won  for  the  world ;    only  faint-hearted   or  interested 
people  doubted  that  the  generation  before  them  would  see 
all  nations  coming  into  the  common  fold  of  natural  trade. 
We  might  as  well  have  chosen  the  moment  when  a  Roman 
consul  was  descending  from  the  car  of  his  triumphal  pro- 
cession to  the  Capitol  to  ask  him  to  acknowledge  that  the 
empire  was  growing  too  fast,  as  have  asked  Free  Trade 
victors  between  1846  and  1880  to  think  of  removing  the  con- 
trol of  trade  from  the  self-government  then  being  granted 
to  the  colonies.     To  have  retained  trade  under  our  Imperial 
control  would    have   seemed  a  cruel  slur  upon  the  intelli- 
gence of   the  newly-enfranchised    colonies,  and  therefore 
no  question  was  raised,  and  trade  was  left  as  a  local  and 
internal  affair.     But  our  hopes  proved  to  be  illusive  ;  no  one 
of  the  Continental  nations  has  followed  our  lead,  and  the 
United  States  and  our  own  colonies  have  most  determinedly 
and  decisively  taken  their  stand  on  the  old  platform  of 
Government  Protection  and  guidance  of  industries. 
N  2 


180  r  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

Every  Responsible  colony  but  one  has  a  Tariff  more  or 
less  severe  ;  Victoria  and  Canada  very  soon  pronounced 
quite  definitely  for  Protection  against  all  comers,  Great 
Britain  included;  New  Zealand,  South  Australia,  Queensland, 
and  the  Cape  hesitated  at  such  points  as  a  general  5  per 
cent,  for  revenue  in  New  Zealand,  7§  per  cent,  in  Queensland, 
and  so  on ;  but  only  New  South  Wales  took  up  freedojn. 
And  since  1880  freedom  has  continued  to  lose  ground  : 
New  Zealand  has  changed,  so  has  Queensland,  the  Cape  is 
hesitating.  New  South  Wales  is  its  only  stronghold,  and 
even  there  it  is  not  by  a  great  majority  that  it  is  maintained  K 
A  New  Zealand  writer  of  repute  (Gisborne,  Colony  of  New 
Zealand,  1888)  shows  that  the  colonists  consider  it  proved 
that  the  light  duties  they  levied  for  revenue  had  done  them 
good,  so  far  as  they  had  gone,  by  acting  protectively.  It 
might  have  been  thought  that  Canadians  and  Victorians 
would  have  had  more  remunerative  employment  on  their 
plenty  of  good  land  than  in  making  pianos  in  competition 
with  our  elaborately  organized  methods  of  production.  As 
it  is,  the  Canadians  'protect5  their  piano-makers  by  imposing 
a  duty  of  £$  on  English  and  foreign  pianos ;  Victoria  a 
duty  of  25  per  cent,  of  the  value;  the  Cape  15  per  cent. ; 
whilst  Queensland  and  New  Zealand  raise  revenue  by  a 
5  per  cent,  duty ;  only  New  South  Wales  admits  them 
free2.     A  walk  through  the  courts  at  the  great   Colonial 

1  In  the  General  Election  of  1889  the  Free  Traders  won  71  seats, 
the  Protectionists  60 ;  in  Sydney  itself  only  5  out  of  the  41  members 
were  Free  Traders.  This,  with  the  corresponding  movement  in 
Victoria  towards  Inter- Australian  Free  Trade,  largely  influenced  the 
acceptance  of  Australian  Union  in  Trade  at  the  Federal  Convention 
of  March,  1891. 

2  Some  examples  of  the  duties  levied  are  as  follows : — 

Canada.      Victoria.   Cape.    Queensland.   N.S.W. 

At^lt\        35%  »%       .0%      '    5%  Free 

Carpets       .    .  25  20  15  5  Free 

Cottage  Pianos    $30  each  25  15  5  Free 

Grand  Pianos    $50&i5%        25  15  5  Free 


Ch.viii.]  Free  Trade.  181 

and  Indian  Exhibition  of  1886  revealed  unexpected  am- 
bitions; these  colonies,  with  millions  and  millions  of  acres 
yet  unoccupied,  furnished  great  stalls  with  their  samples  of 
clothes,  hosiery,  machinery,  and  billiard-tables. 

Victoria  wishes  to  foster  her  own  manufactures ;  and  her 
democratic  constitution  enables  her  artisans  to  control  her 
policy.  Not  only  are  imported  clocks  and  watches  taxed  20 
per  cent.,  but  even  such  necessaries  as  agricultural  imple- 
ments 20  per  cent,  also;  hansom  cabs,  waggonettes,  and 
buggies,  ^20  each  ;  medicines,  25  per  cent. ;  silk  manu- 
factures, 20  per  cent. ;  articles  of  apparel,  wholly  or  partly 
made  up,  25  per  cent. ;  coal,  20  per  cent.  The  only  touch 
of  liberality  in  their  tariff  is  the  appearance  on  the  exemption 
list  of  all  works  of  art ;  but  in  view  of  their  own  absorption  in 
business  this  is  hardly  a  self-denying  ordinance. 

The  Representative  colonies  and  the  Crown  colonies  are 
not  free  to  choose  their  own  course.  The  retention  of 
imperial  control  has  prevented  the  adoption  of  any  Protec- 
tive measures,  and  customs  duties,  though  largely  relied 
upon  for  revenue,  are  confined  to  that  object.  The  Imperial 
Parliament  had  to  decide  whether  to  allow  India  to  protect 
her  own  cotton  goods  against  Lancashire.  The  voice  of 
Lancashire  prevailed  in  the  name  of  Free  Trade,  but  there 
are  not  wanting  those  who  maintain  that  it  was  our  duty  to 
India  to  regard  India's  needs.  However,  it  is  not  easy  to  see 
how  so  fundamental  a  principle  as  Free  Trade  can  be  left 
optional  by  us  in  the  government  and  guidance  of  our 
dependencies.  It  must  be  noted  that  in  one  way  the  imperial 
connexion  limits  the  action  of  the  colonies,  even  of  the 
Responsible  ones  ;  they  are  not  as  yet  competent  to  negotiate 
treaties  of  commerce  directly  with  foreign  powers  or  between 
themselves.  Whatever  they  do  is  against  the  world.  But  this 
limitation  is  being  removed.  Canada  has  already  a  right 
of  treating  with  foreign  countries  through  our  Foreign  Office, 
and  in  conjunction  with  our  ambassadors,  apart  from  the 
Colonial  Office.  Australian  Governments  are  looking  for 
the  same  liberty,  and  as  a  treaty  means  an  exchange  of 
advantages  for  the  two  parties  it  will  be  very  difficult,  if  not 


1 82  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

impossible,  for  such  treaties  to  be  made  without  affecting 
English  interests  sooner  or  later.  It  is  therefore  felt  in  the 
West  Indies  to  be  a  grievance  that  we  will  not  allow  them 
to  enter  into  a  separate  treaty  with  the  United  States,  as 
could  be  done  very  readily  with  great  advantage  to  those 
islands ;  nor  even  with  Canada.  The  Imperial  Government 
cannot,  in  deference  to  foreign  nations,  allow  treaties  to  be 
made  by  any  parts  of  our  empire,  over  which  it  has  control, 
with  certain  countries  to  the  exclusion  of  others ;  nor  can 
it  consent  to  be  a  party  to  the  exclusion  of  Great  Britain 
from  markets  to  the  advantage  of  rival  manufacturers  or 
producers. 

Commercial  Union? 

This  situation  within  the  empire  is  grievously  deplored  in 
many  quarters.  It  seems  to  violate  the  principles  of  domes- 
ticity which  should  underlie  a  really  united  empire.  The 
day  for  compulsion  is  past,  but  a  change  might  be  made  by 
the  voluntary  formation  of  the  empire  into  a  single  Com- 
mercial Union.  The  Austro-Hungarian  Empire,  for  ex- 
ample, is  more  solid  than  ours :  although  commercial  union 
was  left  to  the  Local  Legislatures  as  a  'national'  concern, 
practically  the  result  was  good,  as  Hungary  decided  to  join 
the  Customs  Union  of  the  other  states  composing  the  empire, 
so  that  that  empire  is  for  commercial  purposes  a  unit. 
Commercial  Union  might  be  either  complete  or  partial.  In 
the  former  case,  all  tariffs  between  Britain  and  her  colonies, 
and  amongst  the  colonies  themselves,  would  be  abolished, 
and  a  single  tariff  of  duties  upon  foreign  goods  would  take 
their  place.  But  it  is  universally  agreed  that  this  is  quite 
chimerical.  The  practical  proposal  is  that  Britain  and  the 
colonies  should  favour  one  another  in  their  tariffs,  in  com- 
parison with  foreign  nations.  A  slight  duty  on  American 
wheat  and  none  on  Indian  and  Canadian,  for  instance ;  an 
increased  duty  on  French  wines,  a  lower  one  on  Australian  ; 
a  duty  on  German  sugar,  none  on  West  Indian  ;  and  other 
similar  discriminations,  would  be  in  force.  Certainly  there 
is  a  strong  bond  in  such  a  connexion  as  this.    Whatever  be 


Ch.viii.]  Commercial  Union?  183 

our  opinions  as  to  the  strength  and  efficacy  of  race-senti- 
ment and  political  connexion  in  uniting  the  parts  of  an 
empire,  there  can  be  no  questioning  the  reality  of  a  union 
which  diminishes  internal  dues,  taxes,  and  imposts,  and  con- 
stitutes a  single  industrial  community.  Hence  we  find  some 
imperialists  always  dwelling  upon  this  idea ;  nothing  else  really 
satisfies  them :  they  like  the  sentiment,  *  love  of  home,'  '  the 
old  country,'  and  all  that.  Soudan  contingents  are  quite  in 
the  grain  of  their  humour,  but  in  their  hearts  they  believe 
that  British  goods  must  have  an  advantage  in  colonial 
markets  and  colonial  goods  in  ours  if  the  empire  is  to  be 
placed  on  a  rock. 

The  general  question  of  a  Commercial  Union  of  the 
empire  includes  the  following  considerations  at  least. 

Advantages,  (i)  The  solid  and  tangible  union  of  the  empire, 
amounting,  for  the  colonies  chiefly  affected,  to  a  re-union,  a 
making  real  of  a  constitution  which  at  present  is  formal  and 
almost  intangible,  and  a  strengthening  of  British  influence 
in  the  councils  of  the  nations. 

(ii)  The  union  might  eventually  lead  to  universal  Free 
Trade.  In  one  way  it  would  lead  from  it,  as  Great  Britain 
would  have  to  increase  or  re-impose  duties  against  foreigners, 
but  on  the  other  it  would  lead  towards  it,  as  the  colonial 
series  of  tariffs  against  her  would  be  lightened.  The  area 
of  free  intercourse  would  be  enlarged  very  greatly.  Great 
Britain  stands  practically  alone  at  present,  alone  with  New 
South  Wales,  in  abhorring  duties,  and  fundamentally  free. 
No  sign  of  abandonment  of  the  Protection  position  is  pal- 
pably evident ;  we  must  wait  for  flow  of  time  or  for  some 
catastrophic  change.  But  if  Great  Britain  announced  that, 
failing  the  adhesion  of  other  nations  to  the  principle, 
she  was  obliged  to  take  them  at  their  own  word,  and 
to  look  to  her  own  family  of  nations  for  a  better  recep- 
'  tion,  we  should  increase  the  freedom  of  trade  within  the 
most  widely  extended  family  of  communities  in  the  world. 
If  this  proved  successful  for  the  development  of  our  empire, 
it  would  be  a  great  object-lesson  for  the  cause  of  '  Freedom 
of  Trade.'    And  again,  the  immense  importance  of  the  United 


1 84  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

Empire  as  a  customer  would  oblige  other  nations  to  consider 
their  present  position,  and  to  think  seriously  about  the 
continuance  of  a  policy  which  closed  British  and  Colonial 
markets  to  their  wares. 

Difficulties,  (i)  The  formation  of  such  a  union  could  not 
but  give  rise  to  antagonism  with  other  nations.  Such  a 
union  would  be  in  itself,  as  a  whole,  a  fortress  of  defiance. 
The  whole  temper  of  our  foreign  relations,  as  they  have  been 
since  i860,  would  be  so  altered  that  we  should  have  to  pre- 
pare to  pay,  in  wars  and  preparations  for  wars,  severer  taxes 
on  our  industry  than  all  the  customs-duties  levied  from  us 
by  foreign  nations  to-day.  At  several  points,  too,  special 
causes  of  antagonism  would  threaten.  Can  we  seriously  sup- 
pose that  the  United  States  would  sit  still  and  allow  Canada 
to  place  British  goods  in  privilege  in  comparison  with 
American  ?  And  can  there  be  any  serious  doubt  as  to  the 
result  if  Americans  made  up  their  minds  that  it  was  detri- 
mental to  American  progress  to  suffer  it  ?  Can  we  shut  off 
the  West  Indies  and  Guiana  from  the  United  States  and 
the  South  American  republics,  with  which  they  transact  two- 
thirds  of  their  trade,  without  causing  to  arise  from  all  the 
New  World  a  cry  of  America  for  Americans,  continent, 
islands,  and  all  ? 

(ii)  Many  Englishmen  seem  to  be  committed  for  life  to 
Freedom  of  Trade  pure  and  simple.  The  great  contest  by 
which  our  present  system  was  made  possible  made  a  deep 
impression  on  the  trading-classes  and  the  working-classes  of 
the  country.  Like  the  abolition  of  Slavery,  it  is  regarded  as 
a  victory  of  a  moral  and  social  kind  which  admits  of  no  return 
to  older  ways.  And  many  are  sanguine  that  the  world  will 
be  gradually  brought  round  to  this  opinion,  while  others  hold 
it  proved  that  even  on  purely  economic  grounds  England 
must  stand  firm. 

(iii)  The  majority  of  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  are  con- 
vinced that  colonies  are  in  a  stage  of  growth  when  Protection 
is  a  necessity.  They  base  their  conviction  on  scientific  prin- 
ciples, and  support  them  by  references  to  definite  opinions 
given  by  leading  political  economists  even  in  England.    Both 


Ch.viii.]  Commercial  Confederation.  185 

Adam  Smith  and  John  Stuart  Mill,  advocates  of  freedom  of 
trade  as  they  were,  allow  that  there  are  circumstances  which 
may  make  Protection  advisable ;  the  colonists  claim  that  these 
circumstances  are  found  in  the  colonies.  The  most  recent 
authorities,  Professors  Marshall  and  Sidgwick,  give  them  fur- 
ther support  from  within  what  may  be  called  the  '  orthodox ' 
school  of  Political  Economy.  Especially  prominent  in  colonial 
minds  is  the  conviction  that  they  have  to  withstand  the  in- 
sufficiently paid  labour  of  European  countries,  Great  Britain 
included ;  and  they  farther  reflect  that  freedom  of  trade  over 
the  whole  British  Empire  implies  competition  with  the  low 
standard  of  living  of  the  rice-eating  millions  of  India. 

(iv)  The  necessity  of  raising  revenue  in  the  colonies  cannot 
be  disregarded,  and  it  is  very  important  in  their  present 
tariff-systems.  In  widely-scattered  populations  no  system 
so  effective  for  raising  revenue  has  been  invented  as  the 
imposition  of  duties  on  goods  as  they  are  landed.  The 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  land,  the  customs-duties,  and  the 
receipts  of  the  railways,  contribute  the  chief  sources  of 
revenue  in  our  young  colonies,  out  of  which  they  have  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  Government,  to  construct  their 
indispensable  public  works,  and  to  pay  their  very  considerable 
interest  on  debt.  The  proceeds  of  land-sales  are  of  the 
nature  of  capital,  and  they  should  be  expended  chiefly  as 
capital ;  the  railways  yield  a  commercial  return  upon  money 
spent ;  the  customs  are  their  chief  income  for  ordinary  pur- 
poses. The  customs  upon  goods  from  Britain  form  so  con- 
siderable a  proportion  of  the  whole  that  they  cannot  be 
substantially  lowered  until  a  substitute  is  found. 


Commercial  Confederation. 

The  grouping  of  colonies  inter  se,  as  commercial  confedera- 
tions^ would  be  an  intermediate  step.  The  Dominion  of 
.Canada  is  already  confederated  in  this  way ;  and  the  move- 
ment is  on  foot  in  Australia.  In  South  Africa  it  is  already  far 
advanced;  in  1890  the  Orange  Free  State  joined  the  Cape 
Colony  in  a  customs  union;   in  the  negotiations  with  the 


1 86 


Trade  and  Trade  Policy. 


[Ch.VIII. 


Transvaal  about  Swaziland  one  condition  was  that  the  Trans- 
vaal should  join  this  union,  which  it  is  likely  to  do ;  British 
Bechuanaland  will  be  added  by  the  High  Commissioner ; 
Natal  will  almost  certainly  follow.  In  this  case  we  have  the 
noteworthy  result  that  where  the  attempt  to  force  political 
confederation  failed,  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  are  leading 
easily  and  naturally  to  commercial  unity. 


Trade  and  the  Flag. 

The  password  most  in  vogue  with  those  who  set  great 
value  upon  the  political  bond  is  the  motto,  '  Trade  follows 
the  Flag!    It  sounds  natural  enough  that  it  should  do  so. 


Distribution  of  the  Trade  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
Average  of  years  i  866-1 884:  Farrer,  Free  Trade.     Table  vii. 

The  sentiment  of  hope  suggests  it,  and  statistics  of  first- 
rate  quality  support  it.  Taking,  for  example,  the  year  1884, 
English  trade  with  the  German  Empire  amounted  to  24, 
shillings  per  head  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  empire,  with 
France  to  35  shillings  a  head  :  with  the  United  States  to 
47  shillings.    But  there  is  a  great  spring  upward  in  the  figures 


Ch.VIII.] 


Trade  and  the  Flag. 


187 


when  we  come  to  the  British  North  American,  South  African, 
and  Australasian  colonies,  with  which,  as  a  whole,  our  trade 
was  at  the  rate  of  168  shillings  a  head. 

How  is  this  to  be  explained?  Are  we  not  yet  in  a 
thoroughly  mercantile  period  where  the  best  market  is  the 
place  where  men  buy  and  sell  ?  Or  are  we  to  suppose  that 
there  is  in  a  Flag  some  magic  which  overrides  even  that 
tendency  of  man  to  get  wealth  where  he  can  ?  Of  course, 
much  can  be  put  down  to  community  of  habits  and  tastes, 
leading  to  community  of  consumption ;  they  have  what  we 
want  and  we  make  what  they  want ;  they  do  not  read 
French  literature  so  much  as  they  read  English.  But  this 
does  not  really  go  so  far  as  might  be  thought.  The  articles  in 
which  national  tastes  differ  are  not  the  most  important  in  the 


with 
United  Kingdom 

with  other  Asiatic 

with 

countries 

with  other     *- 
European 

Countries 

U. 
S. 
A. 

with  China 

& 

ance 

Distribution  of  the  Trade  of  India. 

great  commerce ;  yarns  and  calico,  oil  and  coal,  wool  and 
gold,  have  an  international  character  about  them.  And 
although  community  of  tastes  may  carry  us  far  in  explanation 
of  the  47  shillings  of  the  United  States,  we  have  still  to 
account  for  the  spring  to  168.  Community  of  law  will  not  do 
it :  and  political  institutions  have  not  altered  the  basis  of  social 
life  or  the  details  of  habit  in  the  United  States  sufficiently 


1 88  Trade  and  Trade  Policy.  [Ch.viii. 

to  take  them  out  of  the  same  reckoning  as  the  colonies  in 
that  respect. 

For  the  efficient  cause  symbolized  by  the  Flag  in  relation 
to  trade  we  must  look  for  a  commercial  quality  after  all. 
The  fact  is  that  the  Flag  represents  an  element  of  the  first 
importance  for  modern  commerce,  the  giving  of  confidence, 
and  thereby  the  giving  of  a  foundation  for  credit.  So  long  as 
a  community  remains  a  British  colony  it  occupies  a  special 
and  peculiar  position  for  being  trusted  with  wealth.  In  the 
flow  of  capital,  which  is  vitally  important  to  the  prosperity  of 
these  young  countries,  to  be  in  good  credit  is  of  primary 
importance.  Under  the  Flag  British  capital  has  flowed  out 
in  the  belief  that  the  Imperial  Legislature  could  not  suffer  a 
colony  to  become  bankrupt :  the  exact  amount  of  authority 
possessed  by  the  Colonial  Office  has  not  been  closely  scruti- 
nized, but  the  fact  that  these  countries  are  still  enrolled  as 
colonies  has  been  taken  to  imply  that  we  were  in  some  way 
bound  up  with  them,  and  would  be  responsible  for  them. 
Labour  has  not  shown  any  preference  for  them  :  but  capital 
has  done  so.  It  is  not  meant  that  no  capitalwould  have  gone 
out,  but  that  less  would  have  gone,  and  at  a  higher  rate  of 
interest.  Further,  the  imperial  sentiment  may  sufficiently 
prevail  at  home  to  allow  of  granting  of  liberty  to  trustees  to 
invest  moneys  in  colonial  securities,  which  would  be  a  most 
natural  course,  and  greatly  increase  the  range  of  their  credit. 

Since  the  conduct  of  the  Central  and  South  American 
Republics  some  years  ago  in  enticing  loans  on  unjustifiable 
grounds  and  the  constant  difficulties  of  bondholders  of  high- 
rate  paying  countries  of  the  second  or  third  grade,  as  Spain, 
Turkey,  and  Egypt,  taught  British  investors  some  severe 
lessons,  the  ever-increasing  volume  of  spare  British  capital 
has  flowed  more  fully  in  the  wake  of  the  Union  Jack.  So 
that  now  a  Colonial  Government  occupies  much  the  same 
position  in  the  borrowing  market  as  a  British  municipality 
(e.g.  January  i4,  1891 — Weymouth  Corporation  3j,sJ  98; 
Southampton,  102  ;  Cape  Government,  99 ;  Victoria,  100 ; 
Canada,  104).  The  borrowing  of  capital  determines  the  flow 
of  trade,  for  it  is  not  gold  and  bank-notes  that  are  lent,  but 


Ch.  viii.]  Trade  and  the  Flag.  189 

purchasing-power,  and  the  colonies  are  free  to  purchase 
where  they  like  ;  when  the  time  for  payment  of  interest  and 
repayment  of  loans  comes,  they  are  only  too  delighted  to 
be  able  to  satisfy  us  by  payments  in  kind.  This  keeps  us 
their  export  trade ;  and  as  trade  is  set  up  in  one  direction 
there  is  an  advantage  gained  by  using  our  ships  to  convey 
our  produce  to  them  instead  of  going  elsewhere  to  purchase. 
And  the  '  exchanges '  operate  similarly  in  our  favour.  The 
present  situation  also  leads  to  an  Imperial  banking  system 
centring  in  London.  Besides  the  important  branch  offices 
which  many  colonial  banks  maintain  in  London,  with  special 
London  Boards  of  Directors,  some  very  important  banks 
have  their  head  offices  there,  e.  g.  the  Bank  of  Africa,  the 
Bank  of  Australasia,  the  Bank  of  New  Zealand,  the  Bank 
of  British  Columbia.  There  are  also  many  investment  cor- 
porations which  make  loans  for  colonial  enterprises  easy  and 
secure.  Labour  is  not  much  affected  by  the  Flag,  but  recent 
events  have  shown  that  if  Trades  Unions  are  to  be  inter- 
national it  must  be  by  becoming  imperial  first.  The  hauling 
down  of  the  British  Flag  could  not  fail  to  affect  considerably 
the  position  of  the  colonies  in  their  finances  and  their  trade. 
In  their  infancy  it  would  have  been  ruinous:  even  now  it 
would  be  severely  felt  for  a  very  long  time. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Supply    of    Labour. 

A  characteristic  of  Europeans  at  home  and  abroad  is 
activity.  Where  European  civilization  is  effective  Nature 
is  called  upon  to  respond  to  greater  demands  upon  her ;  and, 
as  she  responds,  the  demand  is  only  stimulated  afresh,  and  so 
the  wealth  of  nations  goes  on  growing.  In  countries  where 
a  moderate  degree  of  industrial  activity  has  been  found  to  be 
already  set  up  Europe  has  not,  as  a  rule,  been  able  to  inter- 
vene. In  China  and  Japan  industrial  pursuits  are  well  estab- 
lished, although  there  has  been  found  large  scope  for  the 
wider  intelligence  of  modern  European  methods.  In  India, 
too,  the  stimulation  of  industrial  activity  has  not  been  a 
pressing  need.  The  expansion  of  Europe  has  been  mainly 
into  countries  occupied  by  indolent  and  unprogressive  races, 
or  so  sparsely  occupied  as  to  be  practically  open  lands.  Hence 
the  development  of  civil  life  has  given  rise  to  a  fresh  demand 
for  labour  whenever  European  energy  has  placed  industry  on 
a  new  footing. 

In  temperate  zones  Englishmen  are  themselves  competent 
to  do  all  kinds  of  industrial  work,  but  in  tropical  regions  they 
cannot  perform  heavy  physical  tasks :  they  can  provide  the 
capital  and  the  managing  capacity,  but  the  manual  work 
requires  people  of  tropical  birth.  In  the  early  days  of 
European  colonization  the  principal  movement  was  into 
tropical  and  sub-tropical  countries,  but  later  on  temperate 
climates  were  occupied,  and  at  length  the  latter  movement 
became  the  more  important  of  the  two. 

In  supplying  labour  for  the  industrial  building  up  of  Euro- 


Employment  of  the  Native  Population.  191 

pean  colonies,  five  expedients  have  been  resorted  to  at 
different  times  in  different  places. 

§  1.  Employment  of  the  Native  Population. 

The  employment  of  the  inhabitants  found  in  the  new  coun- 
tries was  the  method  adopted  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  New 
World.  As  their  prime  object  was  gold  and  silver,  they  forced 
the  people  away  from  their  agriculture  and  such  rudimentary 
urban  pursuits  as  were  followed,  into  the  mines ;  and  ruth- 
lessly driving  them  they  worked  them  to  death.  In  the  group 
of  islands  first  discovered,  the  Bahamas,  we  found  only  sixteen 
natives  left  alive  by  the  Spaniards  :  in  Jamaica  not  one.  On 
the  mainland  the  populations  were  too  great  to  make  destruc- 
tion possible,  but  the  natives  were  subjected  to  great  oppres- 
sion. English  colonists  were  not  placed  in  this  position,  so 
that  we  cannot  tell  whether  they  would  have  acted  with  more 
consideration.  We  found  scarcely  any  natives  in  our  West 
Indies,  and  on  the  American  continent  we  had  to  deal 
with  the  warrior  tribes  of  the  Red  Indians,  who  might  be 
fought  and  driven  off,  but  could  not  be  drilled  into  manual 
labour  of  a  servile  kind.  Later  on  we  came  into  contact 
with  others  of  a  similar  temper,  the  Maories,  or  else  with 
people  of  very  low  type  like  the  Australian  aborigines. 
In  Africa  we  are  gradually  accustoming  the  Zulus  and 
Kaffirs  to  be  the  manual  labourers  of  our  colonies,  the 
Hottentots  and  Bushmen  being  apparently  not  of  sufficient 
stamina  to  bear  permanently  a  part  in  a  higher  but  more 
exacting  kind  of  life.  In  reference  to  native  populations 
generally,  we  find  a  more  thorough  incorporation  of  them  into 
industrial  life  in  those  regions  where  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese have  been  the  representatives  of  Europe  than  in 
those  which  have  come  to  our  lot.  The  mass  of  the  popula- 
tion in  Mexico  and  South  America  is  still  of  the  Indian 
type,  but  there  is  a  very  large  class  of  people  of  mixed 
blood.  This  admixture  has  never  been  an  important 
element  in  English  colonies.  The  regard  for  the  family 
which  characterizes  Teutonic  peoples  has  prevented  amal- 


I92  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

gamation  on  an  extensive  scale;  we  have  never  Roman- 
ized our  idea  of  the  family,  either  in  the  direction  of  legiti- 
mated concubinage  or  in  the  inclusion  of  '  slaves '  in  the  circle 
of  the  household.  A  Carolina  planter's  household,  of  course, 
included  some  domestic  slaves  who  were  almost  part  of  the 
family,  but  the  whip-driven  gangs  of  field-labourers  living  in 
their  cabins  were  kept  outside  the  pale  of  household  rela- 
tionships, even  when  their  general  treatment  was  mild  and 
considerate. 

§  2.  Negro  Slavery. 

The  problem  of  labour-supply  in  America  was  early  met 
by  a  method  not  in  itself  indefensible,  but  utterly  unjusti- 
fiable and  disgraceful  as  conceived  and  carried  out.  The 
abundant  negro  populations  of  West  Africa  were  resorted 
to  for  the  supply.  We  may  at  first  ask— And  why  not? 
It  might  have  proved  a  great  economic  contrivance — 
a  joint  working  of  America's  resources  by  Europe  and 
Africa.  But  two  conditions  indispensable  to  a  just  plan 
were  entirely  absent — (i)  the  consent  of  the  negroes,  (2) 
their  transportation  in  families  and  tribes.  As  neither  of  these 
was  possible,  so  neither  of  them  was  thought  of,  and,  instead, 
there  was  begun  an  interference  with  the  common  rights  of 
humanity,  and  a  barbarous  disregard  of  compensatory  alle- 
viations, which  has  indelibly  blackened  the  record  of  Europe 
in  the  face  of  the  world.  Advantage  was  taken  of  the  low 
state  of  negro  society,  which  made  the  selling  one  another 
into  slavery  a  means  of  gratifying  hatred  and  of  satisfying 
greed ;  and  agencies  for  the  purchase  of  negroes  from  their 
captors  were  set  up  all  along  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  The 
Portuguese  began  the  system  by  carrying  them  from  their 
factories  in  Africa  to  their  plantations  in  Brazil ;  the  Spaniards, 
though  never  themselves  engaging  in  the  trade,  took  every 
advantage  of  it  to  supply  their  plantations  in  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico.  Their  missionary  bishop,  Las  Casas,  unfortunately 
joined  in  regarding  it  with  favour,  thinking  that  as  negroes 
could  work  it  was  less  hard  for  them  to  be  compelled  to  do 
so  than  for  the  Indians,  who  perished  when  forced  to  regular 


Ch.  ix.]  Negro  Slavery.  193 

toil.  England  joined  both  in  the  trade  and  in  the  use  of  the 
negroes  ;  and  though  we  must  not  judge  the  seventeenth 
century  by  the  moral  standards  of  the  nineteenth,  it  almost 
passes  marvel  to  find  the  nation  of  Hampden  and  Milton 
chaffering  with  other  nations  for  the  monopoly  of  this 
very  traffic,  and  actually  securing  it  for  herself  by  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht !  The  lamentable  system  went  on  for 
250  years,  the  annual  number  carried  over  the  Atlantic 
being  some  100,000,  at  least.  So  that  Africa  had  to  suffer 
from  a  double  drain — Mohammedans  drew  negroes  from  the 
East  for  the  domestic  slavery  of  Egypt  and  Arabia  and  Persia 
and  Turkey ;  Europe  drew  them  from  the  West  for  the  plan- 
tations of  the  New  World :  and  of  the  two  ours  was  the 
worse  infliction,  as  the  domestic  servitude  of  Orientals  was 
less  hard  than  the  cattle-like  status  of  negroes  in  Virginia 
and  Jamaica.  In  some  lately-printed  accounts  of  an  old 
West  Indian  plantation  the  entries  of  purchase  and  sale  of 
negroes  appear  mixed  up  with  those  of  the  cattle ;  com- 
bined entries  of  births  of  babies,  asses,  and  oxen  appear, 
and  in  death  also  they  are  not  divided.  In  Africa,  as  a 
French  writer  puts  it,  while  Arabs  sent  raiding  parties  to  the 
interior  from  the  east,  we  took  advantage  of  native  animo- 
sities, and  our  factories  were  as  '  cupping-glasses '  all  along 
the  Atlantic  coast. 

History  of  Abolition. 

A  few  voices  were  raised  against  the  trade  at  intervals, 
the  Society  of  Friends  gaining  for  themselves  memorable 
distinction  for  their  clear  perception  of  its  unjustifiable 
character.  In  Pennsylvania  slavery  was  soon  disallowed ; 
and  in  England  Quakers  were  constantly  lamenting  over 
their  countrymen's  blind  greed.  Towards  the  end  of  last 
century  the  suspicion  that  it  was  indefensible  grew  into  a 
conviction  that  it  was  absolutely  wrong  and  must  be  resisted. 
Granville  Sharp  took  steps  to  obtain  a  decision  that  a  negro 
slave  brought  to  England  was  ipso  facto  freed  and  could  not 
be  taken  back  to  slavery  (the  Somerset  case,  1 772) ;  the  Master 
of  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  set  as  a  subject  for  the 

o 


194  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

University  Essay  in  1784  the  question  whether  it  was  lawful  to 
hold  men  in  compulsory  service ;  the  Bachelor  of  Arts,  Thomas 
Clarkson,  who  gained  the  prize,  was  won  over  to  the  slave's 
cause,  and  gave  the  whole  activity  of  his  life  to  his  release. 
Cowper  wrote  burning  verses  against  it ;  Burke  and  Fox 
protested  against  it ;  Pitt  was  only  looking  for  opportunity 
to  legislate  against  it,  and  the  popular  and  influential 
member  for  Yorkshire,  William  Wilberforce,  was  so 
thoroughly  convinced  of  its  crying  injustice  that  he  joined 
with  Clarkson,  and  made  its  abolition  the  main  purpose  of 
his  public  life.  They  worked  incessantly,  and  the  record 
of  their  labour  is  itself  a  lesson  in  arduous  and  indomit- 
able toil ;  but  it  took  fifty  years  to  achieve  success.  The 
Planting  interest  was  wealthy  and  compact,  and  they  could 
buy  boroughs  and  votes,  and  so  prevent  the  popular  voice 
from  being  heard  ;  and  indeed  it  was  not  until  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1832  cleared  away  electoral  abuses  that  the  thing 
was,  done.  And  ..it  was  hindered  somewhat  by  the  course 
which  the  revolution  took  in  France,  which  threw  suspicion 
upon  all  ideas  of  liberty;  many  even  of  those  who  had  held 
them  were  affected,  and  slackened  in  their  zeal.  The  TRADE 
was  attacked  first.  In  America  itself  the  objection  to  this 
was  felt  even  by  those  who  thought  the  system  allow- 
able, and  the  Virginia  Assembly  went  so  far  as  to  join  in 
a  petition  to  the  Crown  against  it  before  Virginia  achieved 
independence.  The  House  of  Commons  passed  a  Bill  for 
abolishing  the  trade  in  1794,  and  again  in  1796,  but  the 
House  of  Lords  threw  it  out ;  then  a  Bill  for  its  suspension 
(1804)  was  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  76  to  70;  but 
after  the  Lower  House  accepted  Fox's  resolution  in  1806,  the 
next  year,  1807,  saw  victory  (though  Fox  and  Pitt  were  both 
then  dead) ;  the  Bill  was  carried  by  283  to  16,  and  in  the  House 
of  Lords  by  a  majority  of  66.  In  1808  the  United  States 
abolished  the  trade.  As  illicit  traffic  still  went  on  Brougham 
induced  Parliament  to  rank  the  offence  as  felony  in  18 11,  and 
we  kept  cruisers  on  the  seas  to  prevent  it.  The  working  of 
the  new  ideas  of  Political  Economy  was  all  in  favour  of 
abolition ;   arguments  that  it  was  wasteful  as  well  as  un- 


Ch.  ix.]  Significance  of  the  Abolition.  195 

natural  and  unjust  came  to  the  help  of  the  philanthropists  ; 
still,  in  1823  Buxton's  motion  was  again  rejected.  In  1825 
Wilberforce  retired  from  Parliament,  but  Buxton  carried 
on  the  cause  there ;  and  at  last,  in  1833,  the  Reformed 
Parliament  and  the  administration  of  Lord  Grey,  with 
Brougham  and  Stanley  amongst  his  colleagues,  passed  the 
Bill.  The  sum  of  twenty  millions  sterling  was  voted  as  com- 
pensation for  vested  interests  ;  this  still  remains  as  the  most 
signal  example  in  history  of  a  nation  consenting  to  tax 
itself  heavily  in  order  to  undo  a  moral  wrong.  Of  course  it 
may  be  regarded  as  a  means  of  buying  off  opposition ;  but 
even  so,  the  Abolition  party  agreed  to  make  the  sacrifice, 
and  the  nation,  as  a  whole,  applauded  the  decision,  and 
accepted  the  burden.  Wilberforce  lived  to  see  the  Bill 
pass  its  second  reading,  but  died  before  it  came  into  force. 
Clarkson  lived  till  1847.  On  August  1st,  1834,  the  Act  came 
into  operation,  and  770,280  slaves  awoke  to  freedom.  There 
was  a  system  of  apprenticeships  attempted,  in  order  to  keep 
the  negroes  on  their  plantations,  but  in  1838  it  was  given 
up  as  it  was  not  working  well.  In  that  year  the  abolition  was 
extended  to  our  East  Indian  plantations.  In  other  countries 
abolition  gradually  made  its  way  ;  in  France  at  the  Revo- 
lution of  1848,  Portugal  in  185 1,  Holland  in  i860,  and  the 
United  States  by  Presidential  decree  in  1864,  during  their 
great  Secession  War.  In  the  last  decade  the  only  relics 
were  in  Brazil  and  Cuba  ;  but  1886  saw  even  the  remnant 
of  it  in  Cuba  abolished,  (1)  without  compensation,  and 
(2)  without  visibly  affecting  production.  In  Brazil  it  was 
arranged  that  it  should  end  with  the  century,  but  any  owner 
setting  slaves  free  beforehand  had  pro  rata  compensation, 
according  to  the  time  yet  to  elapse ;  the  effect  of  this  was 
restlessness  on  the  part  of  the  slaves,  and  complete  abolition 
was  carried  in  1887.     Thus  closes  the  gloomy  chapter. 

Significance  of  the  Abolition. 

The  disappearance  of  slavery  means  more  than  the  dis- 
appearance of  an  industrial  institution  :  an  idea  which  till 
o  2 


196  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

this  century  has  been  part  of  the  political  philosophy  of 
the  Aryan  peoples  has  been  dissolved.  Plato  and  Aristotle 
had  thought  slavery  defensible  ;  Sparta  and  Athens  had 
worked  by  it.  Slavery  by  conquest,  slavery  for  punishment, 
slavery  to  meet  debts ;  not  only  these,  but  slavery  through 
birth,  by  reason  of  inferiority,  and  to  meet  industrial  neces- 
sity, had  been  justified.  And  it  was  not  abolished  by 
political  philosophy  l ;  the  '  rights  of  man '  did  not  achieve 
it  for  France  or  for  the  United  States.  Nor  was  the 
idea  given  up  because  of  express  condemnation  in  the 
Christian  scriptures,  but  it  was  dissolved  in  the  Christian 
consciousness  ;  the  simplicity  of  Quaker  belief  first,  and  the 
Evangelical  revival  among  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  after- 
wards, brought  men  to  see  that  it  was  alien  and  intrusive  in 
any  attempt  to  realize  human  life  as  already  within  the  king- 
dom of  God.  The  nations  of  Europe  were  convinced  one 
by  one,  and  now  in  tardy  recompense  they  accept  with 
varying  degrees  of  directness  the  duty  of  using  their  influ- 
ence towards  the  abolition  of  slavery  within  the  African 
continent. 

It  is  often  found  in  human  affairs  that  light  springs  up 
out  of  darkness.  Along  with  the  gloomy  record  of  the  250 
years  of  negro  slavery  we  find  the  history  of  its  abolition  ; 
perhaps  the  most  impressive  history  on  record  of  the  origin 
and  completion  of  a  purification  of  the  moral  consciousness  of 
peoples. 

§  3.  Coolie  Labour. 

The  place  of  the  imported  African  is  being  taken  up  in 
many  colonies  of  European  nations,  and  especially  of  Eng- 
land, by  imported  Hindus  and  Chinese ;  the  place  of  the 
Slave  by  the  Coolie.  The  coolie  leaves  his  home  voluntarily, 
he  works  for  wages,  he  has  full  personal  and  fa?nily  rights, 
and  he  can  return  home  at  the  end  of  the  period  for  which 

1  In  1669  John  Locke  drew  up  a  Code  of  Constitutions  for  Carolina, 
in  which  there  are  inserted  definite  provisions  for  '  absolute  power  and 
authority  over  Negro  Slaves,'  without  any  apology  or  explanation  even 
from  this  acTVocate  of  toleration  and  liberty  in  England. 


Ch.  ix.]  Coolie  Labour.  197 

he  has  engaged.  By  this  system  thousands  of  the  poorer 
inhabitants  of  India  are  finding  regular  and  well-paid 
employment  in  climates  similar  to  their  own,  and  they 
return  home  with  savings  that  make  them,  for  the  first 
time  in  their  lives,  capitalists.  One  ship  conveyed  320 
coolies  back  to  Calcutta  with  a  total  of  65,000  dollars 
belonging  to  them.  They  are  almost  entirely  Hindus  of 
the  low  castes,  and  they  are  employed  most  extensively  in 
our  sugar  plantations  in  Mauritius,  in  Natal,  and  in  our 
West  Indian  Islands.  Another  field  has  been  in  the  semi- 
tropical  district  of  Queensland,  where  natives  of  the  Pacific 
Islands  are  employed.  In  all  cases,  except  the  last, 
Government  supervises  their  original  engagement  and  deter- 
mines its  terms ;  regulates  the  voyage  and  the  accommoda- 
tion provided  ;  receives  them  on  arrival,  allots  them  to  the 
different  plantations,  and  regulates  their  treatment  while  in 
the  colonies.  Their  barracks  are  built  on  Government  plans, 
and  are  inspected  from  time  to  time  ;  medical  attendance  is 
secured,  the  food  regulated,  and  the  hours  of  labour  and  scale 
of  remuneration  fixed.  At  the  end  of  their  first  period  the 
coolies  may  re-engage  only  on  certain  conditions,  and  with 
official  sanction,  and  at  the  end  of  two  periods  may  not  re- 
engage at  all,  as  a  rule.  They  may  either  settle  in  the  colony, 
or  return  to  India.  The  Queensland  authorities  have  certainly 
been  remiss,  not  so  much  in  the  regulations  which  they 
made,  although  they  were  inferior  to  those  enforced  in  our 
Representative  and  Crown  colonies,  but  in  the  spirit  in  which 
they  were  carried  out.  Some  terrible  facts  stand  on  record 
in  the  Polynesian  traffic;  ' blackbirding '  was  a  well-known 
term,  and  the  class  of  ships  and  men  employed  in  it  were  of 
the  lowest  and  their  proceedings  unscrupulous.  The  Govern- 
ment at  length  awoke  to  the  duty  of  looking  the  evil  in  the 
face,  but  some  malefactors  condemned  by  the  Queensland 
Courts  under  one  Administration  were  released  when  a  fresh 
Cabinet  came  into  power.  The  advantage  of  an  Imperial 
Government  in  some  circumstances  is  shown  in  the  superior 
treatment  of  these  people  of  lower  race  in  colonies  where 
the  Imperial  hand  is  still  effective.     But  in  all  probability 


I98  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  IX. 

the  last  has  been  heard  of  the  Polynesian  abuses  too, 
although  there  is  peculiar  difficulty  in  Queensland  owing  to 
its  immense  territory  and  the  remoteness  of  the  plantations 
from  the  centre  of  government.  The  numbers  of  Coolies  in 
British  colonies  are  approximately  :  in  Guiana  70,000,  Trini- 
dad 70,000,  Natal  40,000,  Jamaica  13,000;  in  Mauritius  there 
are  250,000,  mostly  settled  there  altogether. 

A  comparison  between  the  slavery  and  coolie  systems 
shows  very  clearly  how  an  economic  need  can  be  met  without 
infringing  on  moral  rights  when  nations  make  up  their  minds 
to  be  just. 

The  Coolie  System.  Slavery. 

The  Essential  Differences. 

(1)  Personal  Freedom.  Man  a  property  or  chattel. 

(2)  Sacredness  of  Families.       Family  rights  allowed  only 

by  favour. 

Consequential  Differences. 

(3)  Homes  left  voluntarily.        Prisoners  or  kidnapped. 

(4)  Education  and  religion       At    caprice,    usually    dis- 
open.  couraged,  often  forbidden. 

(5)  Hope  securely  founded,       No  future  to  look  forward  to. 
either  (1)  of  return  home, 

or  (2)  of  settlement  as 
capitalists. 

Secondary  Differences. 

(6)  Government  supervision  The  horrors  of  the  'middle 
of  voyage.  passage.' 

(7)  Government  regulating  No     proportion     between 
terms  of  engagement.  work  and  reward. 

(8)  Govern?nent  regulating  At  discretion  of  owners. 
standard  of  comfort,  as 

to  house,  food,  and  ?nedi- 
cal  attendance. 

The  above  contrast  is  with  Slavery  under  the  English 
system ;  under  the  French  code  noir  and  the  Spanish  system 


Ch.  ix.]  Convict  Labour.  199 

there  were  important  differences  in  the  direction  of  milder 
treatment. 

It  is  plain  that  the  Coolie  system  is  a  good  one,  if  fairly 
carried  out.  It  may  become  a  cosmopolitan  benefit.  It  is,  how- 
ever, the  plain  duty  of  Governments  to  keep  a  close  watch ; 
and  in  our  case,  as  we  control  through  Parliament  both  the 
Indian  source  of  supply  and  most  of  the  colonies  that  use  the 
system,  the  British  people  can  effectively  supervise  it.  Now 
that  we  have  so  much  constant  communication  with  India  and 
the  colonies  we  may  without  difficulty  do  this.  Englishmen 
travelling  abroad  should  take  notice  of  what  they  see,  and 
Englishmen  at  home  be  ready  to  give  attention  to  their  re- 
ports. In  this  way  the  planters  will  feel  that  proper  treat- 
ment of  coolies  is  an  Imperial  question,  and  that  Imperial 
honour  is  concerned.  On  them  the  brunt  of  the  work  of 
colonization  falls,  but  as  they  also  enjoy  the  profit,  it  is  no 
more  derogatory  for  them  to  accept  Imperial  help  in  watching 
the  system  than  for  the  schoolmaster  of  the  country  to  be  'in- 
spected' by  national  authority.  The  European  mind  is  made 
up  once  and  for  all  on  the  manner  of  the  employment  of  in- 
ferior races  ;  and  though  colonists  may  not  all  quite  cordially 
agree  with  us,  we  cannot  forego  our  responsibilities  as  we 
understand  them. 

The  Chinese  coolie  is  in  a  very  different  position.  He  goes 
to  many  places  ;  often  undesired,  and  in  some  colonies 
actually  forbidden.  But  he  knows  how  to  take  care  of  him- 
self, and  usually  becomes  a  trader,  not  a  field  labourer,  or  he 
engages  in  some  urban  employment.  The  Chinese  question, 
as  a  whole,  belongs  to  a  different  order  of  topics, — that  of 
immigration  of  freemen. 

§  4.   Convict  Labour. 

The  fourth  expedient  is  still  another  instance  of  the  activity 
of  the  Portuguese  in  early  days,  for  it  was  they  who  first 
thought  of  the  plan  of  using  criminals  for  profitable  employ- 
ment, in  the  plantations  of  Brazil,  instead  of  confining  them 
in  indolence  or  in  useless  tasks  at  home.    France  and  England 


2oo  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

soon  joined  in  using  the  method.  In  our  case  it  was  first 
applied  to  political  offenders  in  the  troubled  times  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  A  few  Roundheads  were  shipped  off, 
but  Cavaliers  were  despatched  in  large  numbers  to  Virginia 
and  Barbados  by  Cromwell  after  Dunbar  and  Worcester 
and  the  siege  of  Limerick.  In  1686  there  was  a  similar 
transportation  of  prisoners  to  Barbados  after  Monmouth's 
rebellion.  Husbandmen,  weavers,  combers,  and  'poor  fellows ' 
were  sent  out  after  conviction  for  high  treason,  to  be  sold 
for  ten  years  when  landed.  Lists  are  extant  of  68,  72,  90, 
and  100  prisoners  thus  cleared  from  the  gaols  of  Dorchester, 
Exeter,  and  Wells.  When  their  time  was  out  they  were 
allowed  to  leave  for  other  islands,  and  even  for  Boston, 
New  York,  and  Virginia,  or  to  return  home.  Later,  ordinary 
critnes  were  treated  in  the  same  way,  transportation  beyond 
the  seas  being  the  most  severe  punishment  short  of  death. 

Botany  Bay. 

When  we  lost  our  plantation  colonies  in  America  we  had 
to  look  somewhere  else  for  the  disposal  of  our  convicts.  The 
West  Indies  and  Canada  did  not  want  them ;  so  the  results 
of  Captain  Cook's  voyages  were  turned  to  practical  effect  by 
Pitt,  and  it  was  decided  to  make  a  penal  settlement  on  the 
most  remote  shore  of  Australia,  at  the  place  named  by 
Cook,  from  its  variety  of  plants,  Botany  Bay.  Accordingly 
in  1787  six  transport  ships  and  three  store-ships,  escorted 
by  a  man-of-war  and  a  tender,  with  757  convicts,  of  whom 
nearly  200  were  women,  arrived  there.  Some  marines 
accompanied  them  as  a  guard,  and  some  live  stock  and  seeds 
and  plants  were  sent  for  their  support.  Shipments  afterwards 
became  regular.  The  convicts  were  kept  in  confinement  ;  but 
after  their  sentences  expired  they  received  land,  some  stock, 
and  eighteen  months'  rations.  Many  wasted  this,  but  a  con- 
siderable proportion  turned  it  to  some  account.  The  supply  of 
convicts  was  often  at  the  rate  of  2000  or  3000  a  year,  for  this 
was  the  period  when  severe  penalties  were  in  force  :  many  of 
them  were  under  life  sentences,  commuted  into  transportation, 
for  such  offences  as  forgery  and  horse-stealing.     To  return  to 


Ch.  ix.]  Convict  Labour.  201 

England — '  home '  to  them  no  more — whilst  under  sentence, 
was  itself  a  capital  offence.  Later  on,  free  settlers  went  out, 
and  amongst  them  and  the  emancipists  the  convicts  as  they 
arrived  were  distributed  as  labourers,  instead  of  being  kept  in 
confinement  or  in  Government  gangs  ;  as  the  former  classes 
grew  this  course  was  adopted  more  and  more.  The  state  of 
'  society'  was  indeed  strange  :  lawlessness  was  barely  kept 
under  control  by  a  military  regime ;  there  was  a  moral  chaos, 
well  typified  in  the  unit  of  their  currency,  a  bottle  of  rum ! 
Yet  a  certain  element  of  good  nature  and  cheerfulness  in 
the  acceptance  of  adverse  fate  on  the  part  of  many  who 
were  very  likely  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  leavened 
even  this  unpromising  lump l.  There  were  some  who  candidly 
accepted  the  motto  enunciated  by  a  convict  'poet,'  Barrington, 
as  part  of  the  prologue  to  a  play  at  the  first  rough  Sydney 
theatre — the  well-known  lines — 

True  patriots  all,  for  be  it  understood 

We  left  our  country  for  our  country's  good. 

Gradually,  however,  the  method  became  unnecessary  for  the 
supply  of  labour  for  the  original  locality :  New  South  Wales  ex- 
panded ;  and  when  the  magnificent  Downs  across  the  Blue 
Mountains  were  opened  out  by  roads  a  splendid  future  for 
agriculture  was  secured.  Free  settlers  began  to  come  in 
rapidly,  and  the  reception  of  more  convicts  was  protested 
against.  The  Government  were  perplexed  to  know  what  to 
do  ;  Victoria  threatened  to  put  her  convicts  on  a  ship  for 
Plymouth  ;  the  Cape  people  successfully  objected  to  a  settle- 
ment there  ;  Van  Diemen's  Land  repudiated  the  plan,  and 
with  it  its  own  name.  Western  Australia,  at  its  own  request, 
became  a  stop-gap,  but  even  there  it  had  soon  to  be  given 
up.  Meanwhile  powerful  voices  were  protesting  at  home  in 
the  interests  of  the  wretched  people  themselves,  especially  as 
so  many  were  women.     Howard  had  protested  against  it  for 

1  For  the  Term  of  His  Natural  Life,  by  Marcus  Clarke  (London 
edition,  Bentley,  1889),  vividly  illustrates  this  phase  of  life  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Australian  colonies. 


202  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

some  time  ;  the  milder  criminal  law  of  punishment  advocated 
by  Bentham  and  Mackintosh  and  Romilly  had  come  into 
operation.  In  1819  there  were  13 14  persons  sentenced  to 
death  in  England  and  Wales ;  of  these  108  only  were  executed, 
and  of  these  15  only  were  for  murder.  In  1849,  when  the 
milder  regime  was  in  force,  only  66  were  sentenced  to  death  ; 
1 5  executed — all  for  murder.  Archbishop  Whately  insisted 
strongly  that  the  system  was  condemned  by  its  failure  to 
reformer  to  endeavour  to  reform,  moral  character ;  and  finally 
the  Home  Government  acquiesced  in  these  views,  and  gave 
up  the  whole  system  in  1867. 

France  still  continues  it ;  criminals  irreclaimable  or  re- 
lapsed [recidivistes)  are  sent  to  Cayenne  (French  Guiana)  and 
New  Caledonia ;  the  use  of  the  latter  for  this  purpose  is  a 
sore  point  with  the  neighbouring  Australian  colonies. 

§  5.  Free  Emigration. 

Emigration  is  now  the  normal  method  for  supply  of  labour. 
By  the  nature  of  man's  physical  capacities  it  is  limited  to  the 
colonies  of  the  temperate  zone,  where  it  has  for  some  years 
proved  the  effective  method.  For  the  colonizing  country  it  is 
doubly  important,  as  it  provides  for  her  own  surplus  popula- 
tion at  the  same  time  that  it  forms  new  communities  :  it 
furnishes  not  only  new  customers  for  her  goods,  but  also 
employment  across  the  sea  for  her  children.  Her  merchants 
are  busy,  her  home  factory-chimneys  smoke,  and  at  the  same 
time  her  sons  and  daughters  are  finding  fresh  homes. 

Motives  for  Emigration. 

Forces  may  act  by  expulsion  from  within  or  by  attraction 
from  without.  New  regions  may  offer  new  and  powerful 
inducements,  or  they  may  be  simply  openings  for  a  super- 
abundance which  is  embarrassing  the  industrial  life  of  an 
old  country.  For  the  capacity  of  a  geographical  district  to 
maintain  population  is  a  relative  matter,  and  depends  upon 
the  industrial  organization  of  the  nation  occupying  it.     If  this 


Ch.  ix.]  Free  Emigration.  203 

is  improved,  a  territory,  already  thought  full,  is  proved  to 
have  been  but  inadequately  occupied.  We  do  not  know 
whether  the  single  aboriginal  per  square  mile,  who  once 
monopolized  the  whole  of  what  is  now  our  colony  of 
Victoria,  thought  that  the  '  Garden  of  Australia '  was  already 
sufficiently  populated  ;  but  it  is  certain  that  people  in  Eliza- 
beth's day  thought  that  England  was  getting  uncomfortably 
full  with  some  four  million  people,  and  Cobbett  called 
London  a  '  wen '  on  the  face  of  nature  when  as  yet  many 
populous  suburbs  were  fields  and  gardens.  But,  at  any  given 
time,  the  capability  of  a  country  to  support  population  depends 
upon  the  stage  of  organization  to  which  it  has  attained  ;  and 
if  at  any  given  stage  we  desire  to  know  how  it  stands  in  this 
regard  we  may  ask  at  once  whether  there  was  any  conscious- 
ness of  being  overcrowded  on  the  part  of  the  people  them- 
selves. From  such  a  country  depletion  by  emigration  is  sure 
to  begin  if  openings  are  offered. 

But  a  consideration  of  the  early  stages  of  our  colonization 
shows  that  there  were  other  motives  in  operation  quite  as 
powerful  as  relief  from  pressure  of  population  at  home.  Men 
went  out  because  they  heard  of  new  sources  of  wealth.  The 
tales  of  travellers  and  voyagers  fell  upon  no  inattentive  ears. 
Or  again,  men  were  driven  from  home  by  forces  that  were 
extra-economic,  political  and  religious  animosities  being 
especially  important.  There  was  however  for  150  years  a  con- 
siderable stream  of  voluntary  emigration  of  free  labour  into 
our  British  colonies,  strong  enough  to  raise  the  population  of 
our  American  colonies  to  three  millions  in  1760,  when  that 
of  England  and  Wales  was  about  seven. 

Cessation. 

When  we  lost  America  emigration  dropped  into  insigni- 
ficance for  two  reasons :  (1)  Our  wealthiest  remaining 
possessions  (the  West  Indies)  were  tropical ;  Canada  was 
not  easy  to  open  out ;  Australia  was  only  just  known,  and 
was  being  used  for  other  purposes.  But  (2)  the  lull 
occurred  chiefly  because  at  home  the  pressure  outwards  had 
entirely    ceased.      Population   was  wanted,  our  increasing 


204  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

manufactures  gave  employment  to  many  more  hands  than 
they  displaced ;  the  barriers  of  war  and  the  greed  of 
interested  legislators  compelled  us  to  grow  all  the  corn  that 
could  be  grown  on  English  soils,  however  poor ;  and  recruits 
were  wanted  for  the  king's  service  in  both  army  and  navy, 
where  they  died  by  weariness  and  disease  and  hard  lives,  in 
greater  numbers  than  even  the  long  lists  of  the  killed  and 
wounded  in  such  battles  as  Trafalgar  and  Vimeira  and 
Vittoria  show.  Hence  the  efforts  of  statecraft  in  England 
for  the  thirty  years  before  Waterloo  were  directed  towards 
keeping  up  population  ;  and  emigration  ceased. 


Movement  Eenewed. 

After  Waterloo  the  whole  situation  changed.  As  soon  as 
Napoleon  was  shut  up  in  St.  Helena  the  Poor  Law  policy  of 
fostering  children,  even  the  children  of  paupers,  was  at  once 
changed.  Attention  was  at  once  turned  outwards  again,  and 
from  1815  to  1830  an  average  of  23,000  people  a  year  left 
the  ports  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Canada  and  the  Cape 
had  some  share  of  attention  ;  the  reports  from  Australia 
encouraged,  as  we  have  seen,  free  settlers  to  go  there,  and 
the  United  States  received  a  number  which  constantly  grew. 
Between  1830  and  1840  the  annual  average  rose  to  70,000, 
from  1840  to  1846  to  100,000.  And  then  came  the  most 
memorable  single  phenomenon  in  the  history  of  the  emigra- 
tion of  labour.  In  the  next  few  years  a  movement  of  the 
Peasantry  of  Ireland  began,  which  must  almost  be  called 
a  national  exodus,  the  displacement  of  a  people.  A  com- 
parison of  the  numbers  who  went  out  with  the  population  of 
the  island  shows  the  whole  body  of  the  people  in  agitation. 
In  no  other  country  of  Europe  has  emigration  ever  been 
seen  on  such  a  scale.  The  serious  alteration  in  the  Irish  indus- 
trial system  by  the  displacement  of  small  holdings  in  favour  of 
larger  farms,  which  was  forced  upon  them  by  the  economic 
advantages  of  the  latter  system  under  English  legislation, 
operated  extensively  from  the  middle  of  the  last  century 
onwards.   Then  the  cultivation  of  the  potato  acted  in  a  reverse 


Ch.  ix.]  Nationalities  in  Emigration.  205 

direction  among  the  peasants,  causing  increase  of  population 
and  subdivision  of  holdings.  A  large  body  of  people  had 
at  any  time  only  a  crop  of  vegetables  between  themselves 
and  famine,  and  on  the  failure  of  that  crop  in  1846  and  1847 
they  turned  to  emigration  as  the  only  remedy.  Free  Trade 
mitigated  the  catastrophe,  but  emigration  was  the  panacea, 
and  fortunately  the  Irish  did  not  resist  it,  but  left  Ireland. 
The  stream  from  the  British  Isles,  which  was  at  the  height  of 
100,000  a  year  in  1840-6,  rose  to  280,000  a  year  in  the  years 
1847-50 l,  the  increase  chiefly  from  Ireland.  They  went  every- 
where, but  chiefly  to  the  United  States,  where  they  carried 
with  them  the  idea  that,  rightly  or  wrongly,  they  need  never 
have  come  had  their  country  received  considerate,  not  to  say 
generous,  treatment  at  the  hands  of  Great  Britain,  not  just  at 
that  crisis  exactly,  but  during  the  centuries  when  it  was  pos- 
sible. Since  then  the  stream  of  Irish  emigration  has  pro- 
ceeded ;  her  population,  which  once  reached  eight  millions,  has 
declined  from  5^  millions  in  1801  to  less  than  5  now;  while 
England  has  gone  from  9  to  29  millions,  and  Scotland  from  i\ 
to  4  millions.  The  number  of  Irish  emigrants  from  May  1st, 
1851,  to  December  31st,  1889,  was  3,346,580. 

It  is  sometimes  forgotten  in  the  enthusiasm  of  Imperialists 
that  the  Irish  element  in  every  colony,  and  especially  in  the 
United  States,  is  not  predisposed  to  the  mother-country ;  and 
when  we  speak  of  the  common  sentiments  of  the  '  English- 
speaking  peoples '  all  over  the  world  we  must  bear  in  mind 
that  Irish  resentment  is  likely  for  many  years  to  frustrate 
hopes  of  a  very  cordial  attitude  to  England. 

Nationalities  in  Emigration. 

As  to  nationalities,  several  marked  lines  appear.  For 
example,  Scotchmen  have  shown  a  liking  for  Canada  and 

1  Emigration  figures  are  not  easy  to  obtain  satisfactorily,  as  there 
is  no  means  of  knowing  what  was  net  emigration,  i.  e.  how  many 
people  went  out  really  to  settle  abroad,  and  how  many  must  be 
deducted  from  the  enumerations  as  travellers  only.  But  still,  the 
figures  are  useful  for  comparison,  as,  at  least,  we  can  trace  move- 
ment by  means  of  a  comparative  examination  as  between  year  and 
year. 


206  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

also  for  New  Zealand  ;  German  vine-dressers  from  the  Rhine 
have  heard  of  the  promising  vineyards  of  Australia.  It 
has  been  found  that  a  lad  from  a  Cambridgeshire  village 
who  had  himself  done  well  in  London  has  been  the  means  of 
bringing  a  dozen  families  from  his  native  village  to  London : 
in  the  same  way  family  ties  have  promoted  the  mobility  of 
labour  nearly  all  over  the  world  as  much  as  railways  or 
steamboats  themselves  have  done.  French  emigrants  proceed 
only  on  French  lines,  to  Algeria  chiefly,  and  to  places  where 
France  has  traditional  influence,  as  Egypt.  They  are  not 
numerous  ;  it  is  doubtful  whether  half-a-million  people  of  pure 
French  birth  live  outside  France  at  this  moment,  except  the 
French  Canadians. 

German  emigration  has  been  much  more  important. 
The  Germans  have  many  excellent  qualities  for  settling  a 
country  ;  accordingly  they  began  very  early,  and  their  emigra- 
tion is  active  still.  In  Pennsylvania,  for  example,  they 
always  formed  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  people ;  to 
the  Cape  they  went  under  the  shield  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company ;  and  now  they  go  everywhere.  To  the  United 
States,  between  the  years  1850-70,  some  250,000  Frenchmen 
came  to  settle ;  but  in  that  same  period  2,267,000  Germans 
and  2,700,000  Irishmen.  In  Canada  there  are  over  a  quarter 
of  million  people  of  German  or  Dutch  origin.  If  a  '  Ger- 
many' had  come  into  existence  earlier  than  she  did,  and 
a  colonizing  policy  been  taken  in  hand,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  we  should  to-day  have  seen  important  colonies, 
or  even  independent  States,  of  German  origin.  As  it  is,  they 
are  absorbed  in  the  British  colonies  and  the  United  States, 
in  which  they  exercise  an  influence  which  has  hardly  yet 
been  sufficiently  analysed.  Spanish  and  Portuguese  emigra- 
tion proceeds  chiefly  to  one  or  other  of  the  South  American 
states ;  and  Italians  have  shown  that  the  Latin  affinity  is 
still  strong  by  choosing  the  Hispano-American  regions  of 
the  River  Plate  and  Buenos  Ayres  as  a  favourite  ground. 
The  Swiss  have  preferred  America,  but  have  gone  to  both 
North  and  South.  The  Dutch  do  not  move  much  now. 
They  were,  indeed,  once  on  the  point  of  doing  what  would 


Ch.  IX.]  The  State  and  Emigration.  207 

have  given  them  a  very  different  place  in  colonization. 
Macaulay,  in  his  essay  on  Temple,  says  that  when  Charles  II 
broke  up  the  Triple  Alliance  and  left  Holland  almost  at  the 
mercy  of  Louis  XIV,  the  Dutch  were  nearly  removing 
en  masse  either  to  America  or  to  their  Eastern  colonies. 
But  they  had  their  place  preserved  for  them  in  their  narrow 
home,  and  their  numbers  have  never  given  them  the  power  of 
supplying  many  emigrants  ;  about  4000  a  year  went  to  the 
United  States  in  1882-89. 

Scotland  made  one  or  two  separate  attempts  at  coloniza- 
tion :  one  to  Nova  Scotia  in  1621,  to  be  under  the  i  Crown  of 
Scotland,'  and  governed  by  Scottish  law ;  the  other,  the  dis- 
astrous attempt  at  Darien.  But  their  separate  endeavours 
were  not  prolonged,  and  Scotchmen  soon  threw  in  their  lot 
with  Englishmen. 

Mr.  Payne,  in  his  able  review  of  the  whole  subject  of 
European  emigration  {European  Colonies,  pp.  383-386),  states 
his  opinion  that  the  most  successful  element  in  it  is  con- 
tributed by  the  Scotch,  that  the  English  come  second,  and 
the  Germans  next. 

The  State  and  Emigration. 

It  is  difficult  to  remain  satisfied  with  Government  inaction 
in  so  important  a  movement.  Without  going  so  far  as  to 
desire  to  see  a  Government  collecting  information  about  the 
condition  of  its  people,  or  about  the  openings  abroad  for 
labour,  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  people  to  move  in 
accordance  with  the  situation  disclosed,  we  may  still  think 
that  much  might  be  done.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  good 
deal  has  been  done  in  France,  for  example,  to  stimulate 
colonies,  and  in  Germany  to  keep  her  people  at  home.  In 
England  there  was  a  beginning  of  Government  attention 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  when  free  passages  to  our 
American  colonies  were  offered  to  labourers  and  their 
families  who  were  out  of  occupation.  In  this  century 
the  House  of  Commons  first  considered  the  subject  about 
ten  years  after  the  Great  Peace  had  begun,  and  in  1871  a 
Royal  Commission  examined  it.    The  Government  accord- 


208  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

ingly  adopted  the  plan,  very  much  like  that  of  Wakefield, 
of  using  the  proceeds  of  colonial  land-sales  in  premiums 
to  emigrant  labourers;  and  bounties  of  ^30  for  a  man 
and  ^20  for  a  woman  going  to  a  colony  were  given.  After- 
wards the  Governments  of  the  Responsible  colonies  had  to 
take  their  own  measures  for  attracting  labour  ;  but  before 
they  had  time  to  effect  much,  the  gold-discoveries  in  Victoria 
gave  an  independent  impetus,  although  they  caused  a 
diversion  of  the  stream.  But  nearly  all  the  colonies  offered 
either  free  or  assisted  passages  to  labourers,  and  on  arrival 
granted  land  on  easy  terms,  as  it  was  not  wage-labourers 
they  were  likely  to  get,  so  much  as  men  who  were  tired  of 
wage-paid. labour  in  England  and  yearned  to  have  a  bit  of 
land  of  their  own.  This  might  very  well  have  gone  on  for 
a  long  time,  as  there  were  immense  territories  to  be  occu- 
pied, but  soon  the  influence  of  democracy  was  seen  in  the 
colonial  governments  ;  the  men  already  in  the  colony  began 
to  regard  with  jealousy  the  arrival  of  further  '  supply '  ;  the 
votes  for  assisting  immigration  were  reduced,  and  in  most 
cases  withdrawn  altogether. 

Opposition  from  Colonial  Governments. 

But  the  course  of  development  has  led  to  a  still  stranger 
position  :  here  again  the  granting  of  liberty  has  been  turned 
against  ourselves.  Our  young  colonies  took  early  oppor- 
tunity of  independence  in  Government  to  set  up  hostile 
tariffs  against  the  produce  of  Lancashire  and  Dundee  and 
Belfast.  They  are  now  tending  towards  a  hostile  attitude 
towards  the  migration  of  British  labourers  into  their  vast 
regions.  They  say  that  they  will  have  them  when  of  the 
right  sort,  and  will  welcome  such.  For  this  no  thanks  are 
due  ;  as  we  have  seen,  each  such  person  has  cost  Britain 
£17$,  and  he  is  lost  just  as  he  begins  to  be  a  builder  up 
of  our  national  wealth.  But  her  nondescripts  they  have 
ceased  to  invite,  and  ominous  threatenings  are  heard  that 
her  failures  they  will  not  have.  Even  the  strong,  able-bodied 
man  is  told  that  he  ought  to  have  a  little  capital,  say  some 


Cm.  ix.]    '    Opposition  from  Colonial  Governments.        209 

twenty  shillings  an  acre;  so  that  the  British  labourer  pure 
and  simple  sees  the  gate  practically  closed.  In  the  United 
States  the  notions  of  liberty  and  equality  are  ceasing  to  be  ap- 
plied outside  their  own  boundaries ;  a  Congress-man  and  well- 
known  writer,  Mr.  H.  Cabot  Lodge1 ■,  has  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  time  is  coming  when  America  must  begin  to  consider 
whether  the  tide  of  immigration  of  people  of  inferior  '  morale ' 
is  to  be  allowed  to  continue.  The  old  boastings  about  the 
vast  continent  and  its  arms  open  to  the  oppressed  European 
are  giving  place  to  scowls  at  these  victims  of  decayed  civi- 
lizations, as  competitors  for  the  American's  high  wages. 

Is  Australia  to  be  Appropriated  by  present  Colonists? 


Population 

of 

British  Isles 

37  millions 


Tasmania^ 


IValker  &  Boutallsc. 


■  A  somewhat  troubled  sky  is  over  the  prospect  ;  certainly  if 
the  colonies  are  not  ready  to  take  British  people,  rough  and 
smooth  together,  as  in  the  past,  they  will  cease  to  concern  us 
in  reference  to  our  labouring  classes  and  the  question  of  how 
to  do  the  best  for  our  ever-growing  population.  A  war  to  force 
immigration  or  to  compel  a  re-allotment  of  some  territories 


1  North  American  Review,  January,  1891, 


210  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

which  colonists  cannot  fill  themselves  would  be  an  incon- 
gruous conclusion  to  our  colonial  story.  Other  means  must 
be  hoped  for ;  perhaps  imperialism  in  labour,  or  even  cos- 
mopolitanism, will  take  the  place  of  nationalism,  and  la- 
bourers themselves  will  insist  on  the  world  being  open. 
Meanwhile  the  question,  though  not  urgent,  is  unmistakeably 
becoming  so. 

The  English  Government  and  Emigration. 

In  England  the  opinion  of  those  who  know  much  about 
the  subject  has  led  to  a  discountenancing  of  State  aid  of  a 
pecuniary  kind  being  given  to  emigration,  on  the  ground  that 
the  State  is  not  likely  to  do  it  best,  and  that  the  intervention 
of  the  State  gives  rise  to  peculiar  difficulties  best  left  dormant. 
It  would  be  quite  easy  for  the  Colonial  Office  to  raise  a 
loan  of  a  few  millions  at  3  per  cent.,  and  by  advancing  this  in 
small  sums,  with  great  care,  to  persons  ready  and  fitted  to 
emigrate,  to  set  a  considerable  current  in  motion.  But  are 
we  willing  to  promote  the  departure  of  such  people?  Do 
we  really  wish  to  see  men  and  women  of  fine  physique  and 
good  moral  character  deported  ?  If  they  want  to  go  we  will 
not  hinder  them,  but  we  can  hardly  speed  them  at  the  public 
expense.  But  the  State  may  very  well  be  asked  to  place  at  the 
disposal  of  the  nation  at  large  the  ample  stores  of  information 
at  its  command  through  the  Colonial  Office.  The  request 
for  this  has  at  last  resulted  in  an  agency  being  established 
by  the  Colonial  Office,  under  the  title  of  the  Emigrants' 
Information  Office  \  A  quarterly  statement  is  issued,  show- 
ing the  condition  of  the  labour  market  generally  in  the 
various  colonies,  and  as  modified  from  time  to  time.  The 
peculiar  facilities  for  distributing  information  which  Govern- 
ment possesses  are  utilized  by  the  exhibition  of  this  quar- 
terly circular  at  every  post-office  in  the  kingdom.  But 
this  provision  hardly  seems  adequate  for  the  supply  of  in- 
formation to  so  large  a  number  of  the  population  as  is 

1  The  effort  is  very  slight:  the  whole  'department'  costs  only 
£650  a  year. 


Ch.  ix.]      The  English  Government  and  Emigration.     211 

concerned.  The  conditions  of  industry  are  very  varied, 
and  the  legal  regulations  are  very  complicated  and  perplex- 
ing, there  being  some  550  statutes,  British,  colonial,  and 
foreign,  bearing  on  the  conditions  and  status  of  persons 
changing  their  country  of  residence.  But  the  institution  of 
this  central  office  is  a  boon,  and  farther  development  may  be 
pressed  for  in  time.  In  Ireland  more  is  done :  there  is  in 
Dublin  an  Emigration  Department  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
with  a  chief  inspector,  nine  assistants,  and  seven  medical 
inspectors. 

Another  branch  of  the  work  is  taken  in  hand  by  the 
favourite  English  method  of  societies,  private  and  irrespon- 
sible. Amongst  these  are  the  Self-Help  Emigration  Society, 
for  Great  Britain  (not  Ireland)  at  one  end  of  the  line,  and 
Canada  at  the  other.  This  society  has  correspondents  in 
Canada,  who  are  men  of  some  standing,  to  whom  emigrants 
take  out  letters  of  introduction,  and  who  look  out  for  work  for 
them.  Aid  is  given  when  necessary  ;  and  the  society  placed 
out  816  persons  in  1889  at  a  cost  of  £2  10s.  a  head,  besides 
their  own  contributions.  Employment,  it  is  reported,  was 
found  for  all  who  were  really  willing  to  work.  There  is  also  a 
Church  Emigration  Society,  which  aims  especially  at  utilizing 
the  advantages  possessed  by  the  English  clergy  in  their 
knowledge  of  the  labouring  classes,  and  in  their  ability  to 
give  them  introductions  to  the  clergy  in  the  colonies.  Many 
orphan  societies  and  institutions  adopt  this  method  of  placing 
out  some  of  their  charges.  Still,  all  is  on  a  small  scale  ;  the 
number  assisted  by  societies  in  the  year  when  last  an  enumera- 
tion was  made  was  only  3000.  The  Emigrant  and  Colonists' 
Aid  Association  is  another  society ;  it  has  formed  a  complete 
settlement  in  New  Zealand  of  4000  people,  advancing  capital 
to  people  of  the  wage-earning  class  until  now  they  possess 
holdings  assessed  at  ,£200,000,  and  its  transactions  yield  a 
remunerative  return.  Individual  enterprise  is  not  lacking : 
one  lady  supported  with  ,£100,000  a  scheme  for  a  settlement 
in  the  eastern  part  of  Cape  Colony. 


P  2 


212  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

System  in  Emigration. 

Emigration  has  hitherto  proceeded  very  much  at  random 
as  regards  the  industrial  aptitudes  of  the  emigrants.  Some- 
times their  aptitudes  have  been  much  alike,  whereas  a  com-- 
posite  colony  would  have  many  advantages  ;  a  well-assorted 
group  of  capitalists,  foremen,  and  farm  labourers,  of  black- 
smiths, joiners,  and  other  handicraftsmen,  would  at  once 
form  a  settlement  in  which  variety  of  work  would  be  for 
mutual  good  ;  and  if  we  go  on  to  add  as  a  necessity  the 
schoolmaster,  the  doctor,  and  the  minister  of  religion,  we 
have  a  mixture  of  urban  and  rural  'industry'  such  has 
grown  up  in  old  countries.  It  would  therefore  be  only  the 
conscious  imitation  by  policy  of  the  procedure  of  Nature 
herself. 

The  emigration  parties  of  our  early  period  were,  in  a  rough 
way,  composed  of  such  various  elements  as  these.  John 
Smith,  for  example,  besides  asking  for  young  married  people 
who  wanted  better  employment,  and  '  fatherlesse  children  of 
thirteene  or  fourteene  yeeres  of  age,'  promises  sport  to  the  gen- 
try, pleasure  and  profit  to  planters,  and  to  all  fishing  whereby 
they  may  take  more  in  a  day  than  they  can  eat  in  a  week, 
and  the  delight  of  '  crossing  the  sweet  aire  from  He  to  He 
over  the  silent  streames  of  a  calm  Sea.'  And  of  late  years 
much  thought  and  a  good  deal  of  enterprise  has  been 
directed  to  systematic  colonization.  The  name  of  Edward 
Gibbon  Wakefield  stands  foremost,  perhaps,  among  those 
who  have  urged  it  upon  public  attention.  He  is  a  figure 
of  considerable  interest  in  the  colonial  history  of  the  nine- 
teenth century:  one  of  those  who  combined  practical 
enterprise  with  some  originality  and  force  in  the  region 
of  ideas.  He  wrote  The  Art  of  Colonization,  and  is 
regarded  on  the  best  authority  as  the  'eminent  founder 
of  South  Australia  and  New  Zealand,'  and  he  proposed 
the  resolution  in  the  New  Zealand  Legislature  which  led  to 
responsible  government,  as  in  Canada,  being  granted  to 
the  Southern  colonies  even  in  their  infancy.  As  stated  in 
Chapter  vi,  his  aim  was  that  both  capital  and  labour  should 


i 


Ch.  ix.]  System  in  Emigration.  213 

be  applied  together,  and  that  this  should  be  done  by  the 
colonial  lands  being  sold  only  for  considerable  prices,  the 
proceeds  to  be  expended  in  importing  labour.  Although 
his  efforts  were  not  permanently  successful,  it  was  under  their 
impulse  that  South  Australia  was  cut  off  from  New  South 
Wales,  and  that  New  Zealand  was  first  settled.  The  South 
Australian  Company  was  formed  to  carry  out  these  ideas ; 
a  New  Zealand  Company  was  formed,  with  an  influential 
directorate,  which  founded  Wellington  and  Auckland  ;  later, 
a  company  of  Churchmen  established  Canterbury,  and  one 
of  Presbyterians,  Otago.  But  the  policy  did  not  long  con- 
tinue even  in  those  colonies.  At  home  it  was  attacked  by 
an  influential  exponent  of  the  'natural'  school  of  Political 
Economy,  M'Culloch;  the  gold-rush  to  Victoria  in  185 1  upset 
all  systems ;  and  when  the  colonists  had  matters  in  their  own 
hands  they  abandoned  the  method  and  left  colonization  to 
flow  along  the  easier  ways  of  natural  inclination.  Sir  Frederick 
Young,  a  great  living  authority  on  colonial  subjects,  writes 
of  the  system  thus  :  '  I  confess  that  many  years  of  study, 
reflection,  and  experience  have  led  me  more  than  ever  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  main  features  of  Wakefield's  system  were 
sound,  and  in  my  opinion  it  has  been  an  unfortunate  thing  ■ 
that  they  were  ever  repudiated  and  abandoned,  as  well  for 
the  colonies  as  for  the  mother-country.'  (Roy.  Col.  Inst. 
Transactions,  xvii1.) 

Another  method  proposed  has  been  to  mark  out  the  land 
into  townships  in  an  orderly  fashion,  providing  at  the  outset 
sites  for  churches,  schools,  institutes,  and  hospitals,  in  central 
positions. 

But,  on  the  whole,  we  are  thrown  back  on  what  Adam 
Smith  said  a  hundred  years  ago.  '  According  to  the  natural 
order  of  things,  the  greater  part  of  the  capital ' — he  does  not 
exclude  labour  though  he  is  not  concerned  here  to  mention 
it  ;  it  follows  capital  so  far  as  his  argument  is  concerned — 'of 
every  growing  society  is  first  directed  to  agriculture,  afterwards 

1  For  farther  commendation  of  Wakefield's  principles  see  J.  S.  Mill, 
Political  Economy,  Book  V,  Chapter  xi,  §  12  ;  and  again,  §  14.  For 
a  contrary  opinion  see  E.  J.  Payne,  European  Colonies,  p.  173. 


214  Supply  of  Labour.  [Ch.  ix. 

to  manufactures,  and  last  of  all  to  foreign  commerce.  This 
order  of  things  is  so  very  natural  that  in  every  society  that 
had  any  territory  it  has  always,  I  believe,  been  in  some 
degree  observed.'  And  in  accordance  with  his  fundamental 
views  he  goes  on  to  stigmatize  the  inversion  of  these  by 
modern  States  as  '  an  unnatural  and  retrograde  order.5  But 
our  own  recent  colonial  history,  in  Australia  especially,  has 
shown  that  in  the  early  stages  this  inversion  could  not  be 
imposed,  but  that  as  soon  as  the  colonies  acquired  some 
substantiality  they  have  themselves  inverted  this  'natural 
order,'  and  given  us  such  a  colony  as  Victoria,  where  urban 
and  rural  industry  already  proceed  side  by  side  as  in 
countries  hoary  with  centuries  of  natural  life. 

Lord  Granville  once  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  has  been 
for  the  advantage  of  recent  colonization  that  it  has  proceeded 
at  a  time  when  the  prevalent  doctrine  was  laissez  faire ;  that 
it  has  been  fortunate  that  so  many  new  colonies  have  had  an 
infancy  and  a  youth  not  hindered  by  futile  attempts  on  the 
part  of  the  State  to  direct  them.  But  the  truth  of  this  must 
depend  upon  one  or  other  of  two  assertions,  either  (i)  that 
during  this  period  activity  and  energy  were  so  intimately  bound 
up  with  individuality  that  if  Government  restraint  had  been 
imposed,  the  springs  of  individual  energy  would  have  been 
dried  up,  or  at  least  parched,  and  we  should  not  have  had  the 
copious  outflow  we  have  witnessed  either  of  capital  or  of 
labour  or  of  employing  enterprise  ;  or  else  (2)  that  the 
Government  of  the  time  was  not  of  a  character  to  fit  it  for  such 
a  task.  One  or  other  of  these  may  have  been  true  \  if  so,  Lord 
Granville  was  right.  On  the  other  hand,  John  Stuart  Mill,  as 
ardent  a  lover  of  liberty  as  modern  English  politics  have 
produced,  gave  his  strong  adhesion  to  the  opposite  view,  that 
we  ought  to  have  had  more  Government  guidance  in  coloni- 
zation than  we  have  had.  In  the  last  Book  of  his  Political 
Econo77iy  he  takes  colonization  to  be  one  of  the  spheres  of 
activity  for  which  there  are  plain  grounds  for  the  action  of  the 
State.  '  If  it  be  desirable,  as  no  one  will  deny  it  to  be,  that  the 
planting  of  colonies  should  be  conducted,  not  with  an  exclusive 
view  to  the  private  interests  of  the  first  founders,  but  with  a  de- 


Ch.  ix.]  System  in  Emigration.  215 

liberate  regard  to  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  nations  after- 
wards to  arise  from  these  small  beginnings  ;  such  regard  can 
only  be  secured  by  placing  the  enterprise,  from  its  commence- 
ment, under  regulations  constructed  with  the  foresight  and 
enlarged  views  of  philosophical  legislation  ;  and  the  Govern- 
ment alone  has  power  either  to  frame  such  regulations,  or  to 
enforce  their  observance.'  Of  course,  if  no  '  philosophical ' 
legislation  was  attainable,  this  opinion  is  out  of  court,  and  we 
must  be  satisfied  with  what  has  been  achieved  without  it. 


CHAPTER   X. 

Native  Races. 

European  colonization  is  the  latest  phase  of  the  Aryan 
movement,  and  must  be  the  last,  as  there  is  now  no  fresh  field 
to  occupy.  At  least,  it  already  concerns  all  those  regions 
where  the  Aryan  can  live  and  continue  to  possess  the  char- 
acters by  which  we  know  him,  and  it  must  therefore  be  the 
beginning  of  the  last  movement  of  Aryans  ;  its  volume  may 
be  increased,  but  all  the  probable  lines  of  direction  seem  to 
be  already  laid  down.  There  would  be  no  gain  from  an  attempt 
to  analyse  and  summarize  within  our  brief  limits  what  this 
movement  has  meant  for  all  the  races  of  the  world,  but  our 
subject  requires  some  consideration  of  the  way  in  which  it 
has  affected  such  non-Aryan  branches  of  the  human  family 
as  have  been  brought  within  the  British  Empire. 

Classification  of  the  Baces  of  Mankind. 

The  power  of  variation  has  been  given  to  man  to  a  degree 
which  certainly  prevents  any  feeling  of  monotony  from  arising 
when  we  survey  the  world.  Colours  and  shades,  statures, 
shapes  of  skull,  angles  of  face,  relative  development  of  organs, 
and  other  physical  differences,  have  been  abundantly  distri- 
buted ;  while  as  to  languages  and  dialects,  mental  capacities, 
sentiments,  dispositions  and  tempers,  moral  ideas  and  reli- 
gious hopes  and  fears,  of  these  we  can  but  say  that,  like 
Cleopatra's  charms,  'Age  cannot  stale  nor  custom  wither 
their  infinite  variety.' 

The  efforts  of  ethnologists  to  attain  a  satisfactory  grouping 
of  races  have  given  rise  to  much  interesting  research  and 
argument,  and  some  lines  of  demarcation  not  difficult  to  follow 
have  been  attained,  provided  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  lines 


Classification  of  the  Races  of  Mankind.  217 

are  not  sharp-cut  all  over  the  field,  although  definite  enough 
when   extremes  are  brought  into  contiguity.     One  leading 
ethnologist  has  not  been  able   to  reduce  the  fundamental 
division    to    less    than    eleven ;    another   requires    fifteen ; 
another,  sixteen.     Blumenbach  gave  the  arrangement  which 
has  been  in  popular  use  for  a  considerable  time — CAUCA- 
SIAN, Mongol,  Malay,  Red  Indian,  and  Negro.  Professor 
Huxley  in  1870  gave  a  fivefold  division — Xanthochroic 
(fair  whites)    and   Melanochroic   (dark  whites),   closely 
allied ;  Mongoloid  ;   Negroid  ;   and  Australoid.    But 
these  denominations  are  hardly  suitable  for  ordinary  use,  and, 
on  the  whole,  we  may  replace  them  by  more  familiar  terms 
with  much  the  same  effect  as  to  classification.    Thus  :— 
Aryans  :  (a)  Fair-skinned  and    fair-haired,  as    Scandi- 
navians. 
(b)  Darker- skinned  and  dark-haired,  as  high- 
caste  Hindus. 
These  have  their  present  abode  from  Ireland 
to  the  Ganges,  the  southern  boundary  being  the 
Sahara  Desert  and  the  Indian  Ocean. 
MONGOLS  :  From  Lapland  to  Siam,  with  a  considerable 
variation  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  and   adjacent 
archipelago,  and  further  variations  in  the  Pacific 
Islands,  and  other  variations  in  America. 
NEGROES  :  Central  and  Southern  Africa  ;  and  with  varia- 
tions extending  to  some  islands  in  the  Eastern 
Archipelago. 
Some  Brown  peoples  :  The  earlier  inhabitants  of  India ; 
Australian  aborigines,  and  possibly,  though  doubt- 
fully, Egypt  and  Nubia. 
The   use   of  colour  as  a   mark   is  often   convenient  for 
memory,  and  corresponds  fairly  well  with  the  above  :    White 
for  Aryan ;    Yellow  for   Mongol ;    Black    for    Negro ;    and 
Brown.     But,   closely  pressed,  it  would  remove  the  Hindus 
from  their  proper  place,  which  is  nearer  to  Europeans  than 
to  other  brown  races,  and  it  is  rather  straining  words  to 
speak  of  them  as  '  white.' 
This  classification  leads  to  much  the  same  broad  result  as 


218  Native  Races.  [Ch.  x. 

is  arrived  at  by  comparison  of  the  fundamental  structure  of 
languages — the  Flexional,  the  Monosyllabic,  and  the  Agglu- 
tinative. 

Unity  of  the  Eace. 

That  community  of  race  runs  through  all  these  varieties 
is  beyond  doubt.  Ethnologists  again  incline  to  assign  to 
man  a  single  origin.  The  other  view,  that  man  had  arisen 
in  different  centres,  was  gaining  ground  for  a  time,  until 
(i)  the  advance  of  geology  placed  longer  periods  at  dis- 
posal for  the  working  out  of  variations,  and  (2)  the  evo- 
lution of  species  became  the  predominant  general  position 
in  all  Natural  History.  So  that  Darwin  came  to  maintain 
the  single-origin  view  of  the  older  ethnologists,  Blumen- 
bach  and  Prichard;  the  eminent  French  ethnologist,  M. 
Quatrefages,  is  strongly  in  favour  of  it ;  and  Dr.  Tylor 
regards  it  as  now  the  prevailing  opinion.  The  existence  of 
non-Adamite  man  is  still  an  open  question  ;  indeed  M.  Quatre- 
fages thinks  that  there  were  men  both  in  the  tertiary  and 
the  quaternary  geological  periods,  but  human  beings  as  now 
known  '  seem  to  have  originated  in  one  place,  and  multiplied 
and  multiplied  until  the  population  overflowed,  as  from  a 
bowl,  and  spread  themselves  in  human  waves  in  every  direc- 
tion1.' In  spite  of  all  the  difficulties  placed  in  the  way 
of  such  movement  by  the  seas  and  oceans,  its  feasibility 
was  maintained  by  Lyell  in  the  following  strong  terms : 
'  Supposing  the  human  genus  were  to  disappear  entirely, 
with  the  exception  of  a  single  family,  placed  either  upon  the 
Ocean  of  the  New  Continent,  in  Australia,  or  upon  some 
coral  island  of  the  Pacifie  Ocean,  we  may  be  sure  that  its 
descendants  would,  in  the  course  of  ages,  succeed  in  invading 
the  whole  earth,  although  they  might  not  have  attained  a 
higher  degree  of  civilization  than  the  Esquimaux  or  the  South 
Sea  Islanders.'  That  this  centre  of  origin  was  somewhere  in 
Asia  is  the  common  opinion.  Granting  that  man  appeared 
before  the  present  geological  and  geographical  conditions  of 

1  Human  Species,  chap.  xv. 


Ch.x.]  Expansion  of  other  Nations.  219 

the  earth,  the  facts  point  to  the  far  north,  if  a  higher 
temperature  was  prevalent  there  in  earlier  epochs ;  or  to 
the  central  plateau  between  the  Himalayas  and  the  Altai 
mountains,  if  the  conditions  were  then  as  now.  Towards 
this  plateau  we  find  the  four  fundamental  races  converging, 
and  nowhere  else  ;  around  it  the  three  fundamental  types  of 
language  are  grouped  ;  and  the  domestic  animals  in  their 
early  forms  are  derived  from  it  as  from  a  central  habitat. 

If  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  to-day  can  be  taken  at  some 
1300  millions — which  is  rather  below  than  above  the  recent 
estimates — we  must  assign  about  600  millions  each  to  the 
Aryans  and  the  Mongols,  perhaps  80  millions  to  the  Negro, 
and  10  millions  to  the  relics  of  the  Brown  races.  In  addition, 
there  are  some  20  millions  of  a  mixture  of  races  so  recent  as 
to  fall  within  modern  times,  such  as  the  half-breeds  of  North 
and  South  America  and  the  Mulattoes. 


Races  met  with  in  our  Expansion. 

The  extension  of  the  Aryans  since  1492  over  North  and 
South  America  and  into  Australia,  and  their  assumption  of 
the  government  of  other  regions  where  other  races  are  still 
the  main  body  of  the  inhabitants  and  likely  to  remain  so, 
has  brought  Europeans  into  contact  with  men  of  every  race. 

This  has  resulted  either  in  Extirpation  or  Subjugation  or 
Admixture. 

Expansion  of  other  Nations. 

The  Spanish  movement  involved  extirpation  at  the  outset, 
as  already  described,  in  their  West  Indian  Islands.  It 
seems  almost  beyond  belief,  but  it  is  said  that  the  native 
population  of  Hispaniola  (Hayti),  estimated  at  something 
between  one  and  three  millions  at  the  time  of  the  Discovery, 
had  in  fifteen  years  fallen  to  60,000.  But  in  relation  to  the  Mon- 
goloid inhabitants  of  Central  and  South  America,  the  Spanish 
and  the  Portuguese  have  effected  a  complete  subjugation  and 
a  very  considerable  admixture.  M.  Quatrefages  reckons  the 
mixed  European  and  native  population  of  Mexico  and  South 


22o  Native  Races.  [Ch.  X. 

America  as  one-fifth  of  the  whole.  The  Portuguese  have 
mixed  very  considerably  with  natives  of  Africa  and  of  India. 

French  movement  has  not  been  on  a  scale  sufficient  to 
exercise  any  important  influence  ;  their  acquisition  of  Algeria, 
Tahiti,  and  Madagascar  is  of  too  recent  date  for  any  marked 
result  to  be  seen.  What  influence  there  is  resembles  that  of 
the  Spanish,  the  Latin  nations  lending  themselves  easily  to 
the  formation  of  mixed  races. 

The  Dutch  have  exhibited  the  Teutonic  objection  to  mix- 
ing with  other  races.  At  the  Cape  they  came  into  contact 
with  isolated  offshoots  of  peoples  who  are  either  yellow  or 
brown,  in  admixture  with  black,  the  Bushmen  and  Hottentots, 
stunted  in  body  and  degenerate  in  character,  and  the  record 
is  one  of  harshness  and  extirpation.  The  Dutch,  indeed, 
are  reported  to  hold  views  which  place  such  races  out  of 
the  pale  of  Christendom  as  the  Canaanite  and  Hittite  were 
outside  the  pale  of  Israel ;  and  their  conduct  has  been 
regulated  by  this  belief ;  '  no  slaves  or  dogs  admitted ' 
was  the  inscription  on  one  of  their  two  churches  in  Guiana 
in  1803.  But  in  Java  they  have  had  other  ends  in  view 
than  settling  in  a  promised  land :  their  business  there 
was  so  plainly  to  direct  the  labour  of  the  natives  that 
they  have  organized  a  modus  vivendi  in  an  industrial  system 
with  very  considerable  success,  and  with  benefit  to  the 
Javanese  themselves.  This  was  not  attained  for  a  long 
time ;  the  early  years  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company's 
management  gave  a  result  so  bad  that  Dutchmen  in  our 
day  join  in  repudiating  the  system  of  oppression  which 
was  set  up.  But  they  have  now  in  operation  a  policy  which 
is  a  remarkable  combination  of  liberal  and  aristocratic  prin- 
ciples. On  the  one  hand  they  frankly  recognise  native  local 
government  by  allotting  local  functions  to  the  native  chiefs — 
for  example,  the  enforcement  of  sanitary  laws  in  the  towns 
and  villages.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  pretence 
at  equality  as  part  of  public  policy.  Marriage  between  a 
native  regent-chief  and  a  European  domestic  servant  was 
not  only  forbidden,  but  the  chief  was  severely  reprimanded  for 
asking  for  permission.     No  European  may  on  any  account  be 


Ch.  x.]  The  Negro  Race  in  West  Africa.  221 

a  domestic  servant  to  a  native  chief,  and  any  European  sailor 
or  soldier  found  intoxicated  in  public  would  be  promptly  shut 
up  in  ship  or  barracks1.  Thus  we  have  here  a  thoroughgoing 
aristocracy  set  up  by  a  democratic  people — a  frank  adoption 
of  Oriental  method.  At  the  same  time,  the  Dutch  do  not 
recognise  educational  or  religious  responsibilities  :  they  con- 
sider our  present  policy  in  India  suicidal;  but  that  is,  of 
course,  because  they  do  not  hold  by  'Java  for  the  Javanese.' 

British  Expansion. 

British  colonizing  energy  has  borne  us  into  the  front  place 
in  the  contact  of  Europeans  with  men  of  other  races,  and 
especially  with  the  '  Nature-peoples '  of  the  world,  to  borrow 
a  German  expression.  Leaving  out  of  account  our  contact 
by  commerce  with  China  and  Japan,  and  the  various  Persian 
and  Arab  populations  between  India  and  Morocco,  we  have 
brought  under  our  flag  peoples  belonging  to  all  the  chief 
divisions  of  the  race. 

In  India  we  have  assumed  the  direction  both  of  the 
Aryans  and  of  the  mixed  races  throughout  the  peninsula 
and  the  island  of  Ceylon  ;  and  this  is,  of  course,  our  chief 
achievement  and  our  most  splendid  opportunity  (see  Chap- 
ter v).  It  is  to  the  beneficent  results  of  our  contact  with  the 
native  races  of  India  that  we  must  turn  from  the  sinister 
records  of  our  influence  elsewhere  if  we  would  recover  our 
national  respect. 

The  Negro  Bace  in  "West  Africa. 

The  NEGRO  has  known  us  in  two  ways,  as  we  have  dealt 
with  him  in  the  West  of  Africa  and  in  the  South. 

The  negro  of  West  Africa  is  the  purest  type  of  the  black 
race.  When  we  see  the  familiar  pictures  of  the  woolly  hair, 
the  thick  lips,  the  bridgeless  nose,  we  are  contemplating,  as 
a  rule,  the  typical  native  of  the  Guinea  coast,  where  first  we 
came  into  contact  with  the  race.  Our  contact  has  been  to 
him  a  series  of  rude  and  heavy  blows  :  the  trading  factory  of 

1  Java,  or  How  to  manage  a  Colony.    J.  W.  B.  Money,  1861. 


222  Native  Races.  [Ch.  x. 

the  white  man  became  the  market  where  he  was  sold  into 
hopeless  slavery,  the  place  where  tribal  feud  and  chieftain's 
greed  found  themselves  rewarded  by  the  sale  of  the  hapless 
victims  of  war  or  of  plundering  raids.  This  went  on  for  250 
years.  In  1806  came  the  change,  and  Great  Britain  sent 
the  cruisers  of  her  navy  in  chase  of  slave-ships,  and  founded 
Sierra  Leone  as  an  abode  for  the  homeless  rescued  slaves. 
And  during  this  century  the  'factory5  element  has  again  been 
fostered,  so  that  we  have  in  Free  Town  and  Cape  Coast 
Castle  and  Lagos  the  chief  outlets  of  Guinea  trade,  and  shall 
soon  have  another  still  more  important  where  our  Niger 
territory  touches  the  coast.  Many  points  of  interest  are 
raised  by  the  history  of  our  relations  with  the  Negro  race. 

(i)  Travellers  make  very  serious  charges  against  our  action 
on  that  coast  in  carrying  on  a  liquor  traffic ;  the  results  are 
so  pernicious  that  it  is  alleged  that  this  wrong  is  not  less 
than  that  of  the  slave  trade  itself.  Charges  stronger  than 
anyone  who  is  not  speaking  from  personal  observation  ought 
to  bring  have  been  publicly  made,  and  have  met  with  no 
authoritative  refutation. 

Our  only  consolation  is  in  learning  that  the  worst  offenders 
are  not  English  but  Portuguese,  Dutch,  and  German  firms, 
who  have  entirely  ignored  the  claims  of  common  humanity 
in  the  fierce  race  for  business  profits. 

(ii)  Our  attempt  to  civilize  the  negro  in  our  settlement  at 
Sierra  Leone  is  generally  considered  to  be  far  from  a  distinct 
success.  To  put  it  briefly,  what  we  have  done  is  to  give  an 
opportunity  for  the  imitation  of  Europeanism  by  people 
who  cannot  possibly  really  live  in  our  way  yet.  Exceptions 
there  may  be  and  are,  but  they  stand  oi#  above  their 
countrymen  too  distinctly  to  enable  us  to  found  general 
conclusions  on  their  individual  worth.  An  imitative  civili- 
zation, like  an  imitative  morality,  is  as  a  hollow  reed,  which 
in  time  of  stress  will  pierce  the  hand  that  leans  upon  it.  The 
Church  Missionary  Society  has  found  it  necessary  to  take 
steps  for  the  purification  of  the  native  church  of  Sierra 
Leone  ;  and  Lord  Wolseley  has  declared  his  conviction 
that  if  white  men  left  the  colony  free  there  would  be  a 


Ch.  X.]  The  Negro  Race  in  West  Africa.  223 

relapse  into  savagery  on  the  part  of  the  majority,  and 
that  human  sacrifices  would  again  be  offered  in  every 
market-place  on  the  West  Coast.  The  American  free 
colony  of  Liberia  is,  perhaps,  more  successful.  Time  must 
show  what  else  we  can  do.  Relapse  is  possible;  but  it 
is  yet  quite  open  to  a  hopeful  mind  .to  believe  that  some 
good  has  been  done,  even  if  not  exactly  in  kind  or  degree 
what  we  have  aimed  at. 

(iii)  The  influence  upon  the  race  of  whatever  has  been 
achieved  for  and  by  the  Negro  populations  in  their  new 
homes  in  America  and  the  West  Indies  must  not  be  left 
out  of  account.  Opinions  differ  on  that,  too ;  but  no  in- 
genuous and  disinterested  observer  can  doubt  that  their 
condition  is  almost  immeasurably  higher  than  that  of  their 
original  tribes.  We  must  not  judge  them  by  an  Aryan  stan- 
dard because  they  live  within  our  society ;  we  ought  not 
to  expect  more  progress  than  the  time  elapsed  makes  likely, 
especially  when  we  remember  the  abject  and  depressing 
condition  in  which  the  time  of  their  enslavement  was  passed 
by  very  many.  'Chattels'  do  not  at  once  become  thrifty,  self- 
reliant,  upward-moving,  responsible  beings  because  an  Act  of 
Parliament  alters  their  status  in  a  day.  The  impressions  of 
visitors  to  Martinique  and  Guadeloupe,  and  of  Mr.  Froude 
in  the  British  West  Indian  islands,  where  he  found  what 
seemed  to  him  the  happiest  peasantry  in  the  world,  can 
be  set  against  Sir  Spencer  St.  John's  gloomy  account  of  the 
Negro  Republic  of  Hayti.  And  even  in  Hayti  it  comes 
out  that  it  is  (1)  only  in  remote  places  that  superstitious 
cruelties  are  practised,  and  (2)  in  the  imitations  of  political 
life  that  the  imitative  element  leads  to  absurdity.  In  all 
this  imitation  there  is  much  of  grotesqueness,  no  doubt ;  but 
some  minds  are  even  more  impressed  with  the  pathos  of  the 
endeavours  after  better  things.  Let  us  wait  until  another 
Toussaint  l'Ouverture  arises  ;  if  the  race  had  such  a  man 
once,  it  may  have  others. 

In  the  Southern  States  of  America  white  men  say  that 
the  negro  question  is  still  unsolved.  But  do  the  negroes  say 
so  themselves?    It  is  so  much  easier  for  one  side  to  make 


224  Native  Races.  [Ch.  x. 

\  K  • 

\P  itself  heard  by  us,  and  '  bias'  is  so  palpable,  that  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  what  material  we  have  before  us  is  of  any  value. 
Negroes  appear  unable  to  enter  into  those  combinations  and 
organizations  which  are  so  effective  in  America;  certainly 
unless  they  improve  in  this  respect  they  must  remain  in  a 
subordinate  position  indefinitely. 

Those  who  advocated  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade 
always  hoped  that  some  good  would  come  out  of  that  evil, 
But  abolition  is  too  recent  in  the  United  States  for  us  to  be 
able  to  say  whether  or  not  their  hope  was  without  founda- 
tion. 

The  Negro  Race  in  South  Africa. 

The  natives  of  the  East  and  South-East  of  Africa  are  not 
so  purely  of  the  Negro  race  as  the  West  Africans :  they  have 
a  strong  dash  of  the  Arab  in  their  blood,  and  with  it  a  con- 
siderable increase  of  stamina,  both  physical  and  moral. 
Europeans  of  the  last  generation  had  no  lack  of  reason  for 
recognising  the  metal  of  which  the  various  Kaffir  tribes  in 
and  around  our  growing  Cape  Colony  were  made.  Their 
resistance  to  our  encroachments  was  vigorous,  and  cost  us 
many  anxious  campaigns  and  some  disasters.  In  our  own 
generation  the  Zulus  have  impressed  themselves  very  forcibly 
on  popular  imagination  as  '  neighbours '  of  stubborn  stuff. 

There  is  a  fair  hope  that  in  South  Africa  we  have  reached 
the  end  of  military  hostility  with  the  Kaffirs  and  Zulus.  It 
is  believed  that  the  industrial  era  has  dawned  for  them ;  that 
as  labourers  and  perhaps  as  small  cultivators  they  will  find 
comfort  and  contentment.  Here  again,  however,  distrustful 
voices  are  heard :  from  Natal  there  is  a  cry  that  the  inrush 
of  Zulus  has  ruined  the  colony,  and  that  we  shall  have  to  let 
them  take  possession  of  it,  not  perhaps  in  their  former 
savagery,  but  in  such  stage  of  civilization  as  they  have 
so  far  reached.  And  in  the  provinces  of  the  Cape  Colony 
there  is  the  Dutch  majority  who  doubt  strongly  whether  there 
is  progress  in  store  for  these  races  at  all,  and  many  English 
colonists  agree  with  them.  But  on  the  other  side  there  is  the 
demonstrated  fact  that  the  negro  is  not  suppressed  when  he 


Ch.  x.]  North  American  Indians.  225 

comes  into  contact  with  the  white  man  ;  he  can  live  by  his 
side  and  work  with  him.  And,  what  is  more,  he  can  do  it 
cheerfully.  This  is  the  sign  that  contact  is  congenial  with 
his  health  on  the  whole,  and,  if  so,  the  natural  wholesome- 
ness  will  tell  as  the  great  factor  in  the  final  solution  of  the  case. 
And  when  the  new  regions  are  opened  out,  and  Bechuana- 
land  and  Mashonaland  and  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange 
State  are  all  connected  by  railways,  and  so  with  the  Ocean 
and  Europe,  we  may  expect  to  see  a  supply  of  capital  and 
employing  talent  going  out  which  will  make  a  moderate 
amount  of  labour  so  palpably  to  the  advantage  of  the  strong 
natives  that  they  will  fall  into  place  as  readily  as  their  less 
promising  fellows  have  done  in  Barbados  and  Martinique. 

The  Bushmen  and  Hottentots,  however,  are  almost  certain 
to  be  exterminated.  It  is  not  that  we  are  purposely  injuring 
them,  but  they  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  live  under  the 
conditions  of  our  life.  They  are  being  pushed  farther  and 
farther  inland,  and  in  their  displacement  they  become  de- 
pressed, and  their  numbers  are  diminishing. 

For  the  majority  of  our  South  African  negro  fellow-subjects, 
however,  we  may  fairly  hope  that  our  advent  has  meant  a 
change  of  life  for  the  better.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
their  past  history— if  such  a  term  can  be  applied  to  events 
so  disconnected — has  been  one  of  ceaseless  tribal  wander- 
ings, changes  of  abode,  periods  of  conquest  and  periods  of 
subjugation,  there  is  reason  for  trusting  that  European  civili- 
zation will  prove  eventually  to  be  their  salvation,  not  their 
destruction. 

North  American  Indians. 

The  natives  of  North  America  have  won  for  themselves  a 
place  in  the  European  imagination  far  above  that  to  which 
their  importance  in  the  human  family  would  have  entitled 
them.  Besides  the  Red  Man  there  are  also  in  America 
peoples  who  went  over  Westward  from  Scandinavia  as  well 
as  Eastward  from  Asia ;  such  people  of  '  white '  character 
have  been  found  in  isolated  groups  far  South  as  well  as  in 
the  North.    But  the  Red  Indian,  a  comparatively  late  arrival 

Q 


226  Native  Races.  [Ch.x. 

himself,  has  been  the  native  who  has  concerned  us.  The 
Red  Indian,  as  he  is  incongruously  yet  unalterably  called, 
is  of  predominantly  Mongol  type.  It  is  not  certain  that  he 
has  been  in  America  very  long,  but  when  we  arrived  we  found 
tribes  of  varying  strength  wherever  we  went  between  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi.  Opinions  vary  as  to 
what  was  their  industrial  condition  ;  it  has  been  usual  to 
regard  them  as  simply  in  the  hunti?ig  stage  :  certainly  they 
were  not  pastoral.  The  wild  buffalo  occupied  much  of 
their  attention,  but  they  had  some  rudimentary  agriculture, 
growing  maize—'  Indian  corn,'  as  we  used  to  call  it — and 
tobacco  ;  they  made  pottery :  and  some  tribes  had  villages 
or  encampments  of  some  fixity.  Still  even  these  were  com- 
posed of  moveable  wigwams  :  they  cleared  no  ground.  The 
women  merely  sowed  maize  in  the  glades  as  a  subsidiary 
employment,  while  the  men  were  out  in  the  hunting-field  or 
on  the  war-path. 

Our  usual  procedure  with  them  was,  first,  peaceful  re- 
ception, purchases  and  contracts  ;  then,  contracts  broken  by 
individual  whites  who  desired  new  ground,  or  by  tribes  who 
either  did  not  understand  what  they  had  agreed  to  surrender 
or  could  not  consent  to  abide  by  it  when  they  came  to  under- 
stand it ;  reprisals,  attacks  on  settlers'  houses,  massacres, 
struggles,  and — as  a  result — a  gradual  displacement.  They 
gave  ground  slowly,  and  for  a  century  and  a  half  the  contest 
was  very  bitter.  So  late  as  1756  New  England  Governments 
paid  money  for  Indians'  heads.  When  the  colonies  went  to 
war  with  Britain,  the  Indians  were  for  the  Royal  troops,  or 
rather,  against  the  colonists ;  to  this  day  a  tradition  lingers 
that  '  Britishers/  '  King  George's  men,'  were  their  friends. 

After  the  division  of  North  America  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States,  the  lot  of  the  various  tribes  of  Indians 
ceased  to  be  uniform. 

In  Canada. 

In  Canada  the  milder  attitude  of  the  French  to  the 
Indians  left  us  a  legacy  of  friendliness  to  the  white  man 
which   it   is   pleasant  to  think  was  not   dissipated   by  us. 


Ch.  x.]  North  American  Indians.  227 

We  have  now  in  Canada  about  100,000  (more  than  a  fourth 
of  the  whole  race),  some  of  them  following  agriculture  on 
reserved  lands  in  the  settled  provinces  with  subsidies  at  so 
much  per  head  from  the  Government;  others  engaged  in 
hunting  for  furs  in  the  territories  still  worked  commercially 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  They  appear  contented : 
a  revolt  in  1885  of  half-breeds  (French  and  Indian)  under 
Riel  was  not  sympathized  with  by  the  Indians  themselves. 
Lord  DufTerin  was  able  to  say  to  the  chiefs  of  the  Six 
Nations  at  Tuscarora  in  1874  that  'he  found  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  amidst  every  tribe  of  Indians,  the  name  of  Canada  to 
be  synonymous  with  good  faith,  hwnanity,  and  benevolent 
treatment]  and  he  specially  commends  as  one  of  the  methods 
— taken  from  the  French,  no  doubt — '  a  careful  recognition 
of  the  position  of  the  chiefs,  and  an  encouragement  of  the 
continuance  of  their  own  tribal  organization.' 

In  the  States. 

But  in  the  States  the  conditions  of  peaceful  settling  seem 
somehow  to  have  been  wanting.  The  Government  took 
measures  for  dealing  with  the  Indians— reserves  were  allotted 
to  them— but  the  pressure  of  the  white  population  prevented 
the  Government  from  being  able  to  secure  the  reserves. 
They  were  invaded  and  appropriated  where  the  writs  of  the 
Federal  Government  could  not  be  effectively  executed.  In 
some  cases  deportations  of  Indians  were  made.  It  was  a 
case  of  the  people  being  too  strong  in  their  individual 
capacity  for  the  Government  which  they  set  up.  Up  to  1872 
some  400  treaties  with  tribes  of  Indians  had  been  signed: 
but  an  American1  confesses  that  'it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say 
that  every  one  of  these  solemn  conventions  has  been  broken 
by  the  United  States,  and  many  of  them  were  violated 
almost  before  the  ink  was  dry  on  the  parchment.'  The  fact 
is,  the  Government  has  been  powerless :  the  treaties  could 
have  been  enforced  only  by  a  strong  military  arm,  and  this 
a  democracy  was  in  no  way  likely  to  furnish  against  itself. 

1  Mr.  L.  A.  Lathrop,  New  Keviexu,  Dec.  1 890. 
Q2 


228  Native  Races.  [Ch.  x. 

And  so  the  settlers  spread  out :  hills  and  plains  became 
'territories,'  then  'states';  the  Indian  was  thrust  aside,  and 
his  buffalo  disappeared. 

Could  nothing  have  been  done  ?  Even  in  the  little  Dutch 
settlement  of  New  Amsterdam  in  the  seventeenth  century 
two  parties  arose,  one  counselling  patience  and  kindness,  in 
confidence  that  the  Indians  would  thereby  be  won  over  ;  the 
other  restless,  passionate,  clamouring  for  extermination  as 
the  only  means  of  safety.  And  the  noble  principles  on  which 
Pennsylvania  policy  was  based  led  to  results  of  themselves 
sufficient  to  prove  that  it  is  not  the  inevitable  that  has  taken 
place.  The  condition  of  some  tribes  now  existing  points  to 
a  decisive  answer  in  favour  of  the  Indian.  The  Cherokees 
are  agricultural  and  rear  cattle  ;  they  maintain  schools  at  a 
cost  of  70,000  dollars  a  year ;  they  have  a  newspaper  ;  they 
own  private  property ;  they  increase  in  population  in  a  fair 
ratio  ;  and  they  are  not  despised  by  their  white  neighbours. 
The  Oneidas,  the  last  remnant  of  the  famous  Iroquois  con- 
federacy, still  persist  in  the  State  of  New  York,  having  adopted 
the  white  man's  habits  and  customs.  Mr.  Lathrop  states 
that '  they  are  strictly  temperate,  industrious,  and  Christian.' 

The  number  of  Red  Indians  in  the  United  States  is  now 
about  a  quarter  of  a  million,  mostly  scattered  over  nearly  a 
hundred  reservations,  and  some  fifteen  thousand  living  among 
the  whites. 

That  the  Red  Indian  will  disappear  is  beyond  doubt ;  but 
as  (1)  it  will  be  long  before  all  the  reservations  are  wanted, 
and  (2)  the  Government  is  stronger  now,  and  as  (3)  in  Canada 
the  fur-hunting  grounds  at  least  will  long  be  open  to  him,  a 
farther  lease  of  life  is  before  him.  A  graphic  picture  of  a  Red 
Indian  chief's  view  of  the  disadvantages  of  their  life  in  com- 
parison with  that  of  the  white  man  is  quoted  by  Lotze  \  He 
speaks  of  the  white  man's  corn  soon  raised  in  comparison  with 
his  own  meat  requiring  thirty  moons  to  grow,  of  the  animals 
with  four  legs  to  escape,  and  themselves  only  two  to  follow,  of 
the  security  of  the  grains  of  corn  remaining  where  they  were 
placed,  and  of  the  hundredfold  return.  '  That,'  said  the  chief, 
1  Microcosmus,  vol.  ii,  p.  239. 


Ch.  x.]  The  Maori.  229 

'  is  why  they  have  so  many  children  and  live  longer  than  we  : 
the  race  of  the  corn-sowers  must  supplant  the  race  of  the 
meat-eaters  unless  the  hunters  make  up  their  minds  to  sow 
too.'  If  this  economic  change  is  as  fundamental  as  the  wigwam 
philosopher  thought — and  who  shall  say  that  it  is  not  ? — there 
is  room  for  expectation  that  his  race  may  endure.  He  will, 
however,  gradually  cease  to  be  the  Red  Indian,  except  in 
blood :  different  occupations  and  other  hopes  will  have 
become  his  before  he  passes  away  ;  or,  as  he  comes  nearer 
to  the  white  man,  perhaps  he  will  be  absorbed  as  an 
'element'  in  a  compound  race. 

The  Maori. 

The  Red  Indian  suggests  at  once  another  Native  Race  of 
warlike  character  and  fine  physique — the  Maori  of  New 
Zealand.  Though  he  is  black  in  colour,  he  is  not  negro,  but 
Polynesian — that  is,  a  mixture  of  yellow,  black,  and  very  pro- 
bably brown,  blood  runs  in  his  veins.  He  has  proved  a  valiant 
defender  of  his  soil,  and  has  secured  for  himself  an  honourable 
peace.  Our  proceedings  in  New  Zealand  have  been  straight- 
forward, on  the  whole.  Captain  Hobson,  the  first  Governor, 
recognised  the  Maories'  right  of  possession,  and  proceeded  by 
treaty  in  his  dealings  with  them,  and  regarded  them  as  in 
direct  communication  with  the  Queen  of  England.  The  Treaty 
of  Waitangi  in  1841  was  the  Magna  Chartaof  their  position. 
But  the  solution  was  not  to  be  without  blood.  The  tribes  did 
not  altogether  realize  what  they  were  giving  up  in  the  treaty, 
and  did  not  -recognise  the  right  of  the  chiefs  to  sign  away  the 
land  for  ever,  and  thus  we  had  the  Maori  wars.  The  result 
was  inevitable.  They  were  not  using  the  islands  as  Scotch 
and  English  settlers  could  use  them,  and  they  were  bound  to 
give  way.  They  now  live  in  the  North  Island  to  the  number 
of  about  40,000.  Fairly  settled  in  their  habits,  they  yet  are 
on  the  decline  in  numbers.  This  seems  not  to  be  the  result 
of  our  action,  but  to  be  the  continuation  of  a  decay  recog- 
nised by  themselves.  They  migrated  probably  not  more  than 
four  hundred  years  ago,  and  have  been  successfully  acclima- 


230  Native  Races.  [Ch.  x. 

tized.  But  our  coming  has  no  doubt  affected  them  :  their  grass 
is  conquered  by  ours,  their  rat  by  ours,  and  so,  as  they  say, 
they  themselves  must  expect  to  disappear.  Whether  presently, 
if  they  pluck  up  fresh  heart,  their  new  civilization  can  help 
them  remains  to  be  seen.  Sanitation  can  do  much ;  but 
they  may  be  unable  to  conquer  despondency  and  gather 
courage  for  a  fresh  career. 

The  South  Seas. 

In  Fiji  our  contact  was  at  first  through  individuals ;  the 
civilizing  was  done  by  missionaries,  and  done  well.  The 
natives  have  placed  themselves  under  our  protection  as 
against  any  other  foreign  countries,  and  we  govern  them  as 
a  Crown  colony. 

In  New  Guinea  our  protectorate  has  only  just  begun.  The 
Government  has  determined  to  protect  the  natives  thoroughly 
against  irregular  settlements  of  white  men ;  and  for  the 
present,  at  least,  is  more  concerned  to  attend  to  the  natives 
themselves  than  to  invite  immigrants.  It  is  at  least  likely 
that  what  white  men  do  in  our  part  of  New  Guinea  will  be 
done  in  an  orderly  and  considerate  way. 

The  Australian  Races. 

Two  races  remain  for  consideration,  but  these  open 
out  pages  which  it  is  England's  disgrace  to  find  written 
against  her  in  the  book  of  human  history.  The  aborigines 
of  the  Australian  continent  were  not  an  attractive  people,  no 
doubt ;  nor  did  they  offer  promising  material  for  development 
into  permanent  elements  of  Australian  life.  But  their  fate 
has  been  to  be  traduced  before  the  world  as  hardly  human, 
and  to  receive  a  treatment  which,  as  the  common  saying 
is,  no  one  would  visit  upon  dogs.  The  story  of  the  Red 
Indian  is  repeated,  only  without  any  gleam  of  romantic 
incident  on  either  side.  The  Australian  aboriginal  belongs 
to  the  Brown  race ;  he  is  different  from  either  the  Papuan 
of  New  Guinea  just  to  the  north  of  him,  or  the  Tasmanian 
just  to  the  south  ;  hence  Professor  Huxley  made  an  Austra- 


Ch.  x.]  The  Australian  Races.  231 

loid  class,  with  him  as  type.  There  are,  however,  different 
tribes  on  different  sides  of  the  continent;  some  almost 
African,  some  on  the  east  almost  Polynesian,  and  some 
Malayoid  on  the  north.  There  is  good  reason  for  placing 
all  of  them  very  low  in  the  scale  of  humanity,  perhaps 
at  the  bottom  ;  at  any  rate,  close  by  the  Bushman  and 
Hottentot :  but  the  denial  to  them  of  any  human  qualities 
was  due  to  indifference  or  to  malobservation  through  bias. 
An  outsider  has  judged  differently.  '  I  approach  this  subject 
of  the  Australians  very  unwillingly,5  writes  M.  Quatrefages 
{Human  Species,  p.  453) ;  i  in  no  part  of  the  globe  has  the 
white  shown  himself  so  merciless  towards  inferior  races  as  in 
Australia  ;  nowhere  has  he  so  audaciously  calumniated  those 
whom  he  has  plundered  and  exterminated.  In  his  opinion 
the  Australians  are  not  even  men.  They  are  beings  "in 
whom  are  combined  all  the  worst  characters  which  mankind 
could  present,  at  any  of  which  monkeys,  their  congeners, 
would  blush "  (Butler  Earp).  Noble  minds  have  doubtless 
protested  against  these  terrible  words,  addressed  to  convicts 
who  were  about  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  Australia ;  but  what 
could  be  expected  of  them  when  every  evil  passion  was 
called  forth  and  supported  by  similar  arguments,  which, 
again,  rested  upon  assertions  supposed  to  be  scientific  ?  The 
result  of  those  experiences  in  Australia  and  Tasmania  is 
well  known  ;  and  those  who  wish  for  information  have  only 
to  consult  travellers  of  every  country — Darwin  as  well  as 
Petit-Thouars.' 

In  refutation  of  the  falsehood  of  the  statements  that  were 
commonly  circulated  as  to  the  absence  of  human  faculties 
in  the  Australian,  such  facts  are  now  made  indisputable  as 
that  they  organized  the  family  and  divided  their  tribes  into 
true  clans,  and  even  now  remember  the  reasons  for  the 
division.  They  marked  out  land  (mentally)  and  respected 
boundaries,  they  hollowed  out  canoes,  and  made  nets  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  not  trivial  strength  of  the  kangaroos.  Sir 
John  Lubbock,  relying  upon  one  set  of  authorities,  has  denied 
them  any  religious  beliefs  or  habits.  M.  Quatrefages,  who  has 
read  Sir  John  and  his  authorities,  produces  others  who  show 


232  Native  Races.  (Ch.  x. 

the  Australian  as  conceiving  of  the  world  as  created,  as  offering 
prayers  and  oblations,  as  recognising  evil  and  good,  and  as 
having  a  belief  in  another  life.  Mr.  Bonwick,  an  Australian 
colonist,  told  the  Royal  Colonial  Institute  in  December,  1890, 
that  the  Australians,  before  their  decay  set  in  as  we  see 
it,  had  considerable  intelligence ;  they  were  admirable  mes- 
merists and  thought-readers. 

Now,  if  one  set  of  authorities  has  not  found  these  signs 
of  intelligence,  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  other  in- 
vestigators have  not  found  them  either.  The  inability  to  see 
what  others  see  does  not  prove  absence,  and  although  Eyre, 
Collins,  and  MacGillivray  are  on  the  negative  side,  we  cannot 
possibly  count  as  nothing  the  evidence  of  Cunningham, 
Dawson,  Wilkes,  Salvado,  Stanbridge,  and  Lumholtz. 

The  attempts  to  civilize  the  Australians  have  not  been 
largely  successful,  yet  Dawson  made  some  of  them  into 
rudimentary  farmers ;  Salvado  had  some  useful  workmen 
around  him ;  Blosseville  found  them  of  some  service  when 
the  gold-fever  drew  away  all  his  white  work-people ;  and 
Buckley,  a  deserter,  made  considerable  advance  in  the 
direction  of  civilizing  some  tribes.  The  effects  of  the  missions 
will  be  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  deteriorating  effects  of  rum  are,  however,  beyond  doubt. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  can  drink  rum  without  necessarily  being 
ruined ;  the  native  cannot.  From  this  and  other  causes  their 
number  in  the  settled  districts,  even  with  all  the  care  that  is 
taken,  is  not  maintained,  and  their  disappearance  is  only 
a  question  of  a  few  generations  ;  perhaps  there  are  not  io,oco 
now  in  the  more  settled  parts  of  the  colonies. 

The  colonial  governments,  stronger  now  than  of  yore,  and 
expressing  the  voice  of  orderly  communities,  have  organized 
protection  for  the  aborigines,  so  far  as  they  will  accept  it. 
From  West  Australia  and  North  Queensland  some  dismal 
stories  continue  to  be  heard  \  but,  on  the  whole,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of  Australia  are 
anxious  to  do  their  duty  to  the  fast  disappearing  remnants  of 
their  precursors  in  the  possession  of  that  continent. 

1  See  Lumholtz,  Among  Cannibals,  Murray,  1889. 


Ch.  x.]  The  South  Sea  Islanders.  233 

The  Tasmanian. 

The  Tasmanian  has  formed  the  subject  of  a  dismal  episode 
in  the  drama  of  human  history.  It  is  an  episode  complete 
in  itself;  the  story  of  his  contact  with  the  white  man  has 
begun,  has  run  its  course,  and  has  ended.  The  Tasmanian 
is  no  more.  It  is  a  sombre  story— of  rude,  rough  men 
landed  on  an  island,  finding  weaker  men  in  their  way ;  the 
newcomers,  impatient  and  ruthless,  were  resisted,  and  were 
roused  to  passion.  Gerland,  a  German  writer,  thus  charac- 
terizes the  disappearance  :  '  The  Tasmanian  population  has 
not  vanished  before  the  civilization — as  the  modern  theory 
represents  it — but  before  the  barbarity  of  the  white  men. 
They  were  shot  down  like  wild  beasts ;  regular  hunts  were 
undertaken  against  them  through  the  island.'  Until  18 10 
the  killing  of  a  native  was  not  murder  in  the  colonial  law  :  in 
1826  the  war  of  extermination  began  ;  £$  was  offered  for  the 
capture  of  an  adult,  £2  for  that  of  a  child.  They  were 
pressed  into  a  corner  of  the  island  and  practically  exter- 
minated ;  the  story  was  closed  in  1876  by  the  death  of 
a  woman  who  was  absolutely  the  last  of  the  race.  The 
condemnation  of  the  whites  is  absolute.  The  present  Agent- 
General  for  Tasmania  expresses  a  belief  that  they  would 
have  'succumbed  to  kindness,  which  endeavoured  to  preserve 
them,  as  well  as  to  the  enmity  that  would  have  slain  them.' 
Probably  this  is  so,  judging  from  what  is  taking  place  in 
Australia ;  but  they  need  not  have  been  hustled  out  of 
existence,  hunted  down,  as  no  less  an  authority  than  Darwin 
said,  as  at  some  of  the  great  animal-hunts  in  India. 

The  South  Sea  Islanders. 

In  the  South  Seas  wrong  has  not  been  done  since  any 
islands,  such  as  Fiji,  came  under  our  empire ;  but  the 
intercourse  of  white  traders  had  inflicted  much  deadly  wrong 
upon  the  native  populations.  The  materials  for  judgment  are 
abundant,  and  gloomy  indeed  is  the  reading  of  them.  But 
the  chapter  has  closed,  and  the  occupation  by  European 
Governments  of  mostof  the  important  groups,  and  of  many 


234  Native  Races.  |Ch.  x. 

scattered  islets  too,  has  interposed  the  public  opinion  of 
Europe  between  them  and  the  passions  and  the  greed  of 
individual  Europeans. 

Perhaps  now  it  is  sufficiently  evident  why  Englishmen — 
leaving  others  to  bear  their  own  burdens — dwell  with  so 
much  thankfulness  on  our  present  philanthropic  mission  in 
India.  There  we  may  redeem  the  past.  And  the  scale  of 
our  influence  upon  the  Hindu  peoples  renders  the  aggregate 
of  the  transactions  with  all  other  inferior  races  slight  in 
comparison.^ The  Tasmanian's  wrong  is  not  atoned  to  him 
by  the  welfare  of  the  Bengalee ;  the  crushing  of  the  Red 
Indians  is  not  compensated  for  by  the  careful  tending  of 
Fijians,  any  more  than  the  contentment  of  the  negro  of 
Jamaica  compensates  for  the  wretchedness  of  his  ilave- 
ancestors.  But  it  is  all  the  compensation  possible.^  We 
must  hope  that  the  sins  of  our  fathers  have  wrought  havoc 
for  but  a  few  generations,  whilst  for  a  thousand  generations 
of  the  future  the  peoples  endowed  with  culture  will  redeem 
the  time  by  kindness  and  helpfulness  to  the  Nature-peoples 
of  the  world.  I  To  have  the  leading  share  in  this  redeeming 
influence  is  part  of  the  Imperial  charge  laid  upon  the  people 
of  Britain,  America,  and  Australia. 

The  Past  Unjustifiable. 

Looking  back  over  this  whole  history  it  does  not  appear 
satisfactory  to  our  ideas  of  morality  and  humanity,  to  say 
nothing  of  Christian  charity,  for  us  to  seek  palliation  or 
justification  for  our  treatment  of  these  Nature-peoples, 
especially  in  America  and  Australia,  by  referring  to  the 
necessity  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest  in  the  struggle  for 
life.  Man,  as  a  spiritual  being,  cannot  be  judged  by  reference 
to  the  laws  of  the  non-spiritual  sphere  of  being.  And  that 
the  spiritual  principles  of  justice,  kindness,  and  human 
brotherliness  would  have  yielded  different  results  is  (i)  certain 
on  abstract  principles  and  (2)  confirmed  by  many  isolated 
instances,  notably  the  brightest  spot  in  all  the  history,  the 
method  of  Penn  and  the  colonists  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
(3)  ratified  by  the  comparative  success  in  this  century  since 


Ch.  x.]  The  Past  Unjustifiable.  235 

higher  principles  have  been  both  invoked  and  made  effective. 
Where  justice  and  charity  have  been  combined,  where 
courtesy  and  trust  have  been  our  weapons,  even  with  high- 
spirited  peoples,  response  has  not  been  lacking  on  their  part. 

The  past  is  irrevocable,  and  in  the  future  men  must  move 
on.  Some  of  these  peoples  are  plainly  passing  away :  they 
are  unable  to  live  when  called  upon  to  make  a  sudden  and 
almost  a  spasmodic  effort  to  live  in  a  higher  stage  of  culture. 
But  even  for  these  it  is  not  difficult  to  determine  what  should 
be  our  attitude.  What  is  our  conduct  to  the  sick  and  dying 
among  ourselves  ?  All  the  alleviations  and  comforts  we  can 
think  of  are  placed  cheerfully  at  their  disposal.  Let  it  be  so 
for  these  sick  and  dying  tribes.  Let  us  walk  gently  as  in  the 
sick-chamber,  and  be  ministers  to  their  closing  years  in 
comfort,  patience,  and  tenderness. 

It  is  two  hundred  years  ago  since  the  following  words  were 
written  down  by  a  man  of  an  eminently  kind  heart  and  acute 
observation  ;  we  may  transcribe  them,  for  the  two  centuries 
of  our  own  history  since  have  given  further  evidence  of  their 
truth.  "Tis  hard,'  wrote  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  'to  find 
a  whole  age  to  imitate,  or  what  country  to  propose  for 
example.  History  sets  down  not  only  things  laudable  but 
abominable  ;  things  which  should  never  have  been,  or  never 
have  been  known ;  so  that  noble  patterns  must  be  fetched 
here  and  there  from  single  persons,  rather  than  whole  nations, 
and  from  all  nations,  rather  than  any  one.5  In  a  spirit 
chastened  by  such  reflections  as  these  Englishmen  must 
read  the  history  of  their  relation  to  the  Nature-peoples. 


CHAPTER   XL 

Education  and  Religion. 
I.    Education. 

In  the  minds  of  the  founders  of  British  Colonies  care  for 
the  Education  of  Youth  held  a  very  prominent  place.  The 
educational  institutions  of  England,  with  their  traditions  and 
endowments,  were  left  behind ;  but  in  almost  every  colony 
attention  was  given  to  the  schools  and  colleges  for  both 
religious  and  general  education.  In  colonies  founded  by 
companies,  as  Virginia,  the  settlers  had  the  advantage  of 
the  help  of  leading  members  of  the  companies  at  home ;  in 
those  which  were  places  of  refuge,  like  Massachusetts,  the 
settlers  themselves  took  good  care  not  to  let  their  children 
suffer  from  an  expatriation  which  was  due  chiefly  to  in- 
tellectual and  religious  causes.  The  history  of  Education 
in  America  up  to  the  time  of  the  independence  of  the 
thirteen  colonies  shows  some  noteworthy  features. 

(i)  Provision  for  Education  was  made  from  the  outset. 
The  second  Virginian  Company  (1610)  had  amongst  its  most 
active  members  Henry,  Earl  of  Southampton,  the  patron  of 
Shakspeare  ;  Sir  Francis  Bacon  ;  Bishop  (afterwards  Arch- 
bishop) Abbott ;  Richard  Hakluyt ;  Nicholas  Ferrar ;  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  ;  and  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  a  favourite  pupil  of 
Hooker.  It  is  not  surprising  therefore  to  learn  that  the  Com- 
pany obtained  from  James  I  a  Royal  Letter  authorizing  an 
appeal  to  the  nation  for  funds  for  a  college  at  Henrico,  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  appeal  was  made,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  paid 
in  ;£iooo  from  his  diocese  alone.  The  Company  raised  ^1500, 
and  set  apart  10,000  acres  of  land  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
colony  of  Massachusetts  was  only  ten  years  old,  and  con- 


Education  in  the  American  Colonies.  237 

sisted  of  but  five  thousand  families,  when  it  applied  itself  to 
providing  for  education.  So  important  did  they  regard  it 
that  they  voted  ^400  for  a  college,  a  sum  equal  to  a  year's 
general  revenue.  This  public-spirited  policy  promptly  called 
out  private  beneficence  :  two  years  afterwards  (1638)  John 
Harvard,  a  refugee  clergyman,  bequeathed  half  his  property 
and  his  whole  library  to  this  college,  destined  to  become  the 
most  distinguished  educational  centre  in  the  New  World. 
But  a  still  more  remarkable  evidence  of  the  thorough  deter- 
mination of  the  Massachusetts  settlers  not  to  allow  their 
children  to  lose  the  inheritance  of  the  past  is  found  in  two 
laws  passed  by  their  Assembly : — 

(a)  In  1642  it  was  ordered  that — 

'None  of  the  brethren  shall  suffer  so  much  barbarism  in  their 
families  as  not  to  teach  their  children  and  apprentices  so  much  learn- 
ing as  may  enable  them  perfectly  to  read  the  English  tongue.' 

(b)  In  1647  it  was  further  ordered — 

*  To  the  intent  that  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of  our 
forefathers,  every  township,  after  the  Lord  hath  increased  them  to  the 
number  of  fifty  householders,  shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all  children 
to  write  and  read  ;  and  when  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  number 
of  one  hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up  a  grammar  school ;  the 
masters  thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they  may  be 
fitted  for  the  University.' 

A  comparison  of  the  spirit  animating  these  '  orders '  with 
the  spirit  which  guided  public  opinion  in  England  for  a 
considerable  part  of  this  century  shows  how  far  we  are  from 
the  truth  in  supposing  that  modern  ideas  have  proceeded 
uniformly  in  the  direction  of  progress. 

(ii)  Education  in  the  colonies  was  at  first  liberally  sup- 
ported in  England.  The  national  appeal  for  Henrico 
College  was  only  the  forerunner  of  frequent  applications  of 
a  like  kind.  This  particular  college  was  a  failure  ;  but  in 
the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  a  clergyman  named  Blair 
took  up  the  matter  again,  and  raised  ^2500  from  merchants 
of  the  city  of  London  for  the  '  William  and  Mary  College ' 
which  was  instituted  in  1692 ;  and  William  III  assigned  to  it 


238  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XI. 

^2000  due  to  the  Crown  at  that  time  from  certain  quit-rents 
in  Virginia.  But  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  different  spirit 
began  to  manifest  itself  at  this  very  time  ;  the  Attorney- 
General  of  the  day  (Seymour),  reluctantly  engaged  in  drawing 
up  the  charter  for  William  and  Mary  College,  vented  his 
wrath  in  the  notorious  reply  to  Blair's  representation  that  the 
people  of  Virginia  had  souls  as  well  as  the  people  of  England : 
1  Souls  ?  damn  your  souls  !  make  tobacco  ! '  And  not  much 
more  creditable  to  the  state  of  public  feeling  rapidly  be- 
coming prevalent  was  the  unsympathetic  and  disheartening 
treatment  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole  of  Bishop  Berkeley's 
strenuous  endeavours  to  establish  a  college  in  Bermuda  : 
endeavours  which  Berkeley  had  finally  to  abandon  after 
years  of  procrastinating  promises  on  the  part  of  the  Prime 
Minister.  But  public  help  was  not  altogether  withdrawn ; 
George  II  gave  ^400  to  help  a  college  in  New  York,  and 
^200  to  help  another  at  Philadelphia.  It  was,  however,  to 
private  persons,  to  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian 
Knowledge  (founded  1698)  and  to  the  Church  of  England,  that 
the  promoters  of  these  colleges  appealed,  not  to  Parliament. 
The  Archbishop  authorized  a  collection  throughout  the  king- 
dom for  them,  and  a  sum  of  nearly  ,£10,000  was  received 

(1755). 

(iii)  Education  was  extended  to  the  children  of  the  poor. 
For  instance,  the  Massachusetts  laws  already  quoted  make 
no  distinctions  :  the  townships  were  to  provide  schools  open 
to  all.  There  was  a  free  school  in  the  island  of  Bermuda  as 
early  as  1662,  amongst  its  benefactors  being  Nicholas  Ferrar, 
who  gave  it '  two  shares  of  land  in  Pembroke  tribe ' ;  in  South 
Carolina  large  legacies  were  left  in  1721  and  1731  for  the 
education  of  the  poor  of  the  Parish  of  St.  Thomas.  The 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  1702,  after 
drawing  up  a  code  of  instructions  for  its  missionaries,  pro- 
ceeded to  draw  up  a  similar  code  for  the  parochial  school- 
masters whom  it  was  to  send  out  to  the  colonies  and 
plantations. 

(iv)  Education  was  closely  associated  with  Religiofi.  The 
idea  of  '  secular'  education  was  hardly  conceived  :    in  public 


Ch.  xi.]  Education.  239 

education  the  religion  of  the  colony  was  taught ;  or,  if  there 
were  no  established  religion,  then  colleges  and  schools  were 
denominational.  Yale  College,  in  Connecticut,  was  founded 
by  Congregationalists ;  Princeton  College,  in  New  Jersey, 
by  Presbyterians ;  Columbia  College,  in  New  York,  and 
Philadelphia  College,  by  members  of  the  Church  of  England. 
The  exclusiveness  in  some  of  them  was  uncompromising :  at 
Yale  the  professors  had  to  sign  a  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
attendance  by  the  students  at  public  worship  of  the  Church 
of  England  was  punishable  by  fine,  except  for  communicants 
on  Christmas  and  Sacrament  Days.  At  Harvard  the  charter 
was  entirely  free  from  any  exclusive  provisions  ;  but,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  curriculum  in  divinity  avoided  the 
works  of  Hooker,  Usher,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Chillingworth,  and 
the  other  Anglican  divines  who  contributed  to  '  the  golden 
age  of  English  theology.'  The  schools  were  usually  attached 
to  the  churches,  and  the  children  passed  naturally  from  them 
to  membership  of  the  various  denominations.  When  Great 
Britain  acquired  Canada  it  was  found  that  it  was  the  activity 
of  the  Jesuits  which  had  been  effective  for  education  :  they 
had  organized,  side  by  side,  their  churches,  their  hospitals, 
and  their  schools. 

(v)  Education  was  not  very  highly  valued  in  the  Planta- 
tion Colonies.  In  Virginia  the  two  attempts  to  establish 
a  college  ended  in  failure.  The  Henrico  scheme  fell  through, 
and  the  William  and  Mary  College  never  flourished.  In 
spite  of  liberal  endowments  and  the  encouragement  of  leading 
men  at  home — Archbishop  Wake  was  its  Chancellor,  for 
example — it  was  not  supported  by  the  gentry  of  Virginia. 
In  1724  it  was — 

'  A  college  without  a  chapel,  without  a  scholarship,  without  a 
statute ;  having  a  library  without  books,  a  President  without  a  fixed 
salary,  a  Burgess  without  certainty  of  electors.' 

In  the  West  Indies  the  Propagation  Society  was  unable  to 
organize  a  college  until  1830,  although  two  fine  estates  in 
Barbados  were  bequeathed  to  it  for  this  purpose  by  General 
Codrington  so  early  as  17 10  :  a  school  was  all  that  the  West 
Indian  colonies  were  during  that  period  capable  of  supporting. 


240  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  xi. 

Apathy. 

The  later  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth  were  a  period  of  general  apathy  as  to 
Education,  in  England  and  with  English  people  generally. 
The  Universities  had  gradually  declined  in  zeal  and  efficiency : 
although  from  time  to  time  a  scholar  or  a  mathematician 
appeared,  the  range  of  studies  was  very  narrow,  and  the  tone 
of  intellectual  and  moral  life  very  unworthy  of  the  traditions 
of  the  century  before.  In  the  college  of  Fisher  and  Ascham,  of 
Falkland  and  Strafford,  Wilberforce  was  told  that  as  a  young 
man  of  wealth  and  great  prospects  he  need  not  trouble  him- 
self to  study ;  and  Wordsworth  had  to  declare  that  he  himself 
*  was  not  for  that  hour,  nor  for  that  place.'  The  Grammar 
Schools  were  given  over  to  a  pedantic  routine  ;  and,  although 
the  Christian  Knowledge  Society  supported  about  500  schools, 
the  Bishop  of  Norwich  asserted  in  1810  that  'nearly  two- 
thirds  of  the  children  of  the  poor  had  little  or  no  education.' 
A  change  was  imminent,  however,  which  was  definitely,  but 
slowly,  to  take  Englishmen  back  to  their  former  high  position. 

In  1807  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  for  un- 
denominational Schools  was  established  ;  and  the  Church  of 
England  founded  the  National  Society  in  181 1,  which  aimed 
at  planting  a  good  school  in  every  parish  in  the  kingdom. 
Still,  progress  was  slow  ;  by  1833  the  former  Society  had 
only  160  schools,  and  the  latter  only  690,  in  the  11,000 
parishes  of  England  and  Wales.  In  that  year  the  Govern- 
ment made  its  first  timid  grant ;  in  1839  the  Committee  of 
Privy  Council  on  Education  was  formed,  and  by  1870  there 
were  nearly  2,000,000  children  in  the  National  Society's 
Schools.  In  1870  elementary  education  was  made  com- 
pulsory, and  the  efforts  of  voluntary  societies  were  supple- 
mented by  State  action. 

Present  Condition. 

In  the  colonies  the  apathy  of  this  period  had  but  little 
effect,  in  consequence  of  our  empire  at  that  time  consisting 
chiefly  of  the  plantation-colonies  of  the  West  Indies,  and 


Ch.  xi.]  Present  Condition  of  Education.  241 

settlements  like  Canada  and  the  Cape,  which  were  in  a  very- 
rudimentary  stage  of  growth.  When  the  English-speaking 
colonies  attained  greater  advancement  the  apathy  was  past ; 
and  they  have  one  and  all  most  thoroughly  participated  in 
the  progress  indicated.  Indeed  it  maybe  said  that  they  have 
anticipated  it ;  for  several  of  the  colonies  were  beforehand 
with  the  mother-country  in  recognising  the  right  of  all  children 
to  have  some  education,  and  the  great  advantage  to  society 
in  there  being  opportunity  for  some  children  to  have  the  best 
education  that  can  be  given. 

In  every  English-speaking  colony  there  is  now  a  complete 
apparatus  for  education,  at  least  in  outline.  Universities 
and  High  Schools  for  both  boys  and  girls  are  supported  by 
endowments  or  Government  subsidies,  or  by  both  of  these. 
Elementary  education  is  universally  provided  for  :  even  the 
sparsely  inhabited  districts  of  New  South  Wales  are  not 
allowed  to  be  outside  its  range,  as  teachers  are  appointed  to 
travel  from  place  to  place  when  necessary.  In  most  of  the 
colonies  the  Elementary  system  is  based  on  four  principles  : 
it  is  (1)  compulsory,  (2)  secular,  (3)  free,  (4)  directed  by  the 
central  authority.  In  some  of  the  colonies  provision  is 
being  made  for  technical  education  at  the  public  charge.  In 
the  larger  colonies  there  are  schools  of  medicine  and  law 
attached  to  the  Universities,  so  that  the  whole  range  of 
education  is  covered,  and  resort  to  Europe  rendered  a 
luxury,  not  a  necessity,  even  for  professional  men.  The 
Universities  are  upon  the  Scottish  model,  not  upon  the 
English :  the  students  are  not  resident  under  discipline, 
unless  they  choose  to  enter  the  Halls  established  in  the 
University  towns  by  several  of  the  Churches.  When  school 
and  college  days  are  over,  the  pursuit  of  learning  and  science 
is  encouraged  by  societies  after  the  model  of  those  in  Great 
Britain.  New  South  Wales,  for  example,  has  a  Royal  Society, 
a  Medical,  a  Linnaean,  and  an  Art  Society.  Several  of  the 
colonies  which  are  too  small  to  support  a  University  give 
liberal  exhibitions  to  enable  sons  of  residents  to  proceed  to 
British  Universities. 


242  Education  and  Religion.  |Ch.  xi. 

Educational  Federation. 

There  is  still  a  double  tie  between  the  colonies  and  home 
in  educational  machinery.  Not  a  few  of  the  higher  posts 
in  their  Universities  are  filled  by  men  invited  from  Great 
Britain  to  the  colonies  for  that  purpose  ;  and  not  a  few  of  their 
students  resort,  sometimes  after  passing  through  their  own 
Universities,  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Both  of  these 
Universities  have  power  by  their  new  statutes  to  affiliate 
Colonial  and  Indian  Universities  or  Colleges,  under  which 
residence  at  the  latter  counts  for  part  of  the  required  residence 
in  the  former.  Four  Universities  are  already  formally  affi- 
liated with  the  University  of  Oxford.  There  is  at  Cambridge 
a  Canadian  Club  and  an  Australasian  Club ;  and  there  are 
nearly  always  men  from  the  Cape  and  the  West  Indies 
in  residence.  The  famous  Medical  School  of  Edinburgh  is, 
however,  perhaps  the  chief  resort  of  colonial  youth,  as 
advanced  medical  studies  require  more  apparatus  than  the 
colonies  can  well  supply,  and  medicine  and  surgery  have 
only  lately  become  an  effective  part  of  the  education  offered 
at  the  English  Universities.  Many  go  to  the  London  hospital 
medical  schools,  and  many  law  students  resort  to  the  Inns  of 
Court.  The  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons  of  England  have  gone  so  far  as  to  accept 
the  diplomas  of  the  Australian  Colleges  as  qualifications  for 
practice  in  England.  There  is  not,  however,  reciprocity 
between  the  Bar  of  England  and  of  Australia,  nor  even 
between  the  Bars  of  the  different  colonies. 

In  the  wider  sense  of  '  education '  as  covering  the  whole 
of  life  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  two  great  instruments  of 
culture  are  very  effective  throughout  the  empire. 

The  Press  is  a  far-reaching  and  complicated  mechanism 
for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge.  Most  leading  colonial 
clubs  take  in  some  English  daily  papers, — delivered  in 
batches,  of  course, — while  all  the  weekly  and  monthly  and 
quarterly  journals  of  reputation  are  taken  in  the  centres  of 
colonial  life.  On  the  other  hand,  colonists  have  themselves 
organized  an   extensive   press  ;   daily  papers  in  the  towns, 


Ch.  xi.]  Educational  Federation.  243 

and  weekly  or  bi-weekly  papers  everywhere.  At  the 
Colonial  Institute  in  London  170  journals  are  taken  in  regu- 
larly from  all  parts  of  the  empire.  The  colonial  newspaper 
is  edited  with  a  definite  belief  that  colonists  have  their  wits 
about  them,  and  use  them,  and  a  smartness  closely  akin  to 
that  of  the  American  press  is  an  almost  universal  charac- 
teristic— in  attempt  at  least. 

Travel,  becoming  easier,  less  irksome,  and  less  expensive 
every  year,  gives  all  colonists  who  have  inherited  or  earned 
a  few  hundreds  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  rock  from 
which  they  were  hewn,  and  they  are  not  slow  to  take  advan- 
tage of  it ;  while  Englishmen  in  increasing  numbers  go  out  to 
study  these  new  communities  for  themselves.  Lord  Rose- 
bery  set  a  good  example  to  young  men  with  ambitions  of 
public  usefulness ;  and  soon  it  will  be  difficult  for  purely 
insular  persons  to  look  beyond  aldermanic  chairs  in  town 
or  county  councils.  Members  of  either  House  who  desire  to 
be  heard  with  authority  on  questions  ranging  above  cattle- 
disease  or  incidence  of  highway  rates  must  have  looked  farther 
afield  than  their  own  counties;  and  certainly  the  direct  control 
of  colonial  affairs  at  the  Colonial  Office  can  hardly  be  again, 
as  a  thing  of  course,  entrusted  to  a  man  who  has  not  had 
some  experience  of  the  lands  and  the  peoples  with  which 
he  is  concerned. 

Of  the  material  of  education,  so  to  speak,  little  need  be 
said.  That  grand  common  possession,  our  language,  places 
at  the  disposal  of  colonists,  as  at  our  own,  the  treasures  of  our 
literature  and  the  discoveries  of  science.  Colonial  genius 
will  no  doubt  be  overshadowed  by  the  mass  of  home  litera- 
ture for  long;  not  only  by  the  great  classical  writings  of 
which  they  as  well  as  we  are  the  inheritors,  but  by  the  current 
literature  and  the  higher  literature  of  the  passing  generation. 
In  science  they  at  present  contribute  new  material  chiefly :  but 
in  this  field  the  levelling  of  intellect  will  tell,  and  they  have 
special  opportunities  in  some  fields  of  research.  In  art 
they  are  at  the  greatest  disadvantage.  The  picture-galleries 
and  the  sculpture-galleries  of  Europe  must  ever  remind  them 
that  they  are  offspring,  or  rather,  later  stages,  of  an  older 

R  2 


244  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XI. 

civilization  than  their  own.  Science  gives  her  riches  in 
accumulation  to  the  succeeding  generations.  But  Art  is 
more  reserved,  in  that  to  some  generations  she  gives  little 
or  none ;  more  free,  in  that  upon  some  she  confers  gifts 
which  she  never  after  exceeds.  Choice  engravings,  accu- 
rate photographs  of  rare  old  buildings,  and  careful  casts  of 
famous  statues,  must  be  gratefully  accepted  as  their  temporary- 
resource  by  the  colonies  till  their  own  full  development  comes, 
or  until  by  their  wealth  they  can  persuade  Europe  to  part  with 
some  of  the  treasures  of  her  art-galleries.  Perhaps  the  de- 
creased value  of  English  land,  the  owners  of  which  possess  so 
great  a  stock  of  treasures,  will  in  time  tell  for  the  advantage 
of  colonial  governments  and  municipalities  in  this  way.  At 
present,  when  it  is  said  that  the  level  of  education  and  of 
intelligence  is  higher  in  a  colony  than  at  home,  we  must 
acknowledge  this,  and  yet  allow  for  a  certain  lack  on  their 
part  of  many  '  educational  advantages '  not  scheduled  by  any 
Government  department,  which  our  old-world  people  enjoy, 
or  may  enjoy.  It  is  the  lack  of  this  touch  which  gives  a 
certain  hardness  to  the  colonial  character ;  even  when  a 
colonist  visiting  Europe  is  evidently  endeavouring  to  appre- 
ciate a  picture-gallery  there  is  frequently  something  which 
strikes  harshly  on  his  English  friends  of  the  same  standing. 
Intellect  without  experience  cannot  give  judgment,  in  its 
special  sense  as  a  kind  of  'taste.' 

Education  for  Natives. 

The  education  of  people  of  Native  Race  was  at  the  outset 
associated  so  closely  with  their  religious  conversion  that  a 
separate  treatment  is  impossible  in  the  early  period  of  the 
history.  A  few  instances  of  the  actual  connexion  of  the 
instruction  of  the  natives  with  the  instruction  of  the  children 
of  the  colonists  will  suffice  to  make  it  clear  how  far  removed 
the  early  colonists  were  from  despising  the  coloured  peoples 
as  not  capable  of  instruction  as  distinguished  from  conversion. 

The  Royal  Letter  of  James  I  recommending  the  proposed 
Henrico  College,  speaks  of  '  propagating  the  Gospell  amongst 
Infidells,  by  the  erecting  of  some  Churches  and  Schooles  for 


Ch.  xi.]  Education  for  Natives.  245 

the  education  of  the  children  of  those  Barbarians/  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  Treasurer  of  the  Virginia  Company,  received 
an  anonymous  donation  for  '  the  training  of  Indian  children 
from  seven  to  twelve  years  of  age  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  faith,'  and  then  '  until  they  were  twenty-one  in  the 
knowledge  and  practice  of  some  trade,  when  they  were  to  be 
admitted  to  an  equality  of  liberty  and  privileges  with  the 
native  English  of  Virginia.' 

Governor  Yeardley  made  a  special  treaty  with  the  successor 
of  Powhatan  for  the  introduction  of  Indian  children  into 
Henrico  College.  At  Harvard  also  provision  for  them  was 
to  be  made  ;  and  the  first  building  actually  erected  on  the 
college  ground  was  'the  Indian  college.'  It  was  at  Har- 
vard that  the  missionary,  John  Eliot,  had  his  Bible  and 
tracts  in  the  Indian  language  printed  for  use  in  his  work. 

Again,  sixty  years  later,  when  William  and  Mary  College 
was  instituted,  Robert  Boyle  endowed  an  extra  professorship 
at  the  college  for  the  conversion  and  instruction  of  the 
Indians. 

The  education  of  the  Negro  slaves  was,  as  a  general  rule, 
forbidden,  or  at  least  not  promoted  or  encouraged,  in  the 
English  colonies.  The  plantations  were  scattered  at  consider- 
able distances  ;  the  children  were  set  to  tasks  of  some  simple 
sort,  such  as  picking  up  stones,  or  weeding,  at  a  very  early 
age  ;  and  on  Sundays  and  such  Saturday  holidays  as  the 
negroes  had,  there  were  the  plots  on  which  they  grew 
their  own  food  to  be  cultivated.  A  Catechist  of  the  Propaga- 
tion Society  opened  a  school  in  New  York  for  negroes  in 
1704,  and  the  Society  had  schools  on  the  Codrington  estates 
in  Barbados.  But  of  education  apart  from  worship  there 
was  practically  none  in  the  plantation  colonies.  '  If  you 
attempt  to  teach  the  negroes  to  read  and  write,'  said  the 
British  Governor  of  Guiana  to  a  chaplain  in  18 17,  'I  will 
banish  you.' 

In  India  the  apathy  as  to  education  at  home  prevented  our 
seriously  entering  upon  any  education  policy  until  the  middle  of 
this  century.  Until  181 3  the  Company  hindered  any  attempt 
to  'Europeanize'  the  natives  of  India:  in  1833  came  Macaulay's 


246  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XI. 

method  of  educating  some  of  the  upper  classes  ;  and  then 
followed  the  complete  change  which  has  issued  in  the  system 
which  is  fast  spreading  over  the  whole  peninsula.  There  are 
about  three  and  a  half  million  scholars  and  students  ;  this  is 
only  a  fraction  of  the  children  of  India,  but  it  is  twice  as  large 
a  number  as  that  often  years  ago.  Scarcely  a  tenth  of  these 
are  girls,  however,  India  not  being  yet  ready  for  female 
education  on  an  extensive  scale.  In  almost  every  district 
there  is  a  higher-class  school,  where  English,  and  Sanskrit  or 
Arabic,  occupy  the  position  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  European 
schools.  There  are  six  Universities,  several  Government 
colleges,  and  many  excellent  colleges  aided  by  Government 
grants,  but  mainly  supported  and  manned  by  the  Missionary 
Societies.  For  many  years  the  Missionary  Societies  held  the 
field  in  education,  Carey's  College  at  Serampore  and  the 
Presbyterian  Colleges  at  Madras  having  earned  special  honour 
in  Indian  history. 

In  our  Crown  colonies  education  has  become  one  of  the 
chief  objects  of  Government  care  since  the  increased  attention 
to  it  at  home.  In  Jamaica,  for  example,  there  were  19,000 
scholars  on  the  books  in  1866  ;  there  were  75,000  in  1888  : 
there  is  now  a  Government  School  under  inspection,  and 
taught  partly  by  trained  teachers,  to  every  800  of  the  600,000 
people  in  the  colony. 

II.  Religion. 

Among  Colonists. 

The  general  impression  formed  by  a  survey  of  the  religious 
condition  of  the  European  people  in  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese colonies  is,  that  religion  has  suffered  in  quality  from 
removal  from  the  centre  of  Christendom,  and  from  a  lowering 
of  moral  tone  due  to  the  enervating  influence  of  climate  and 
the  intermixture  with  heathen  people.  The  history  of  Portu- 
guese Christianity  is  undoubtedly  that  of  a  decline,  and  the 
accounts  given  by  the  South  American  republics  agree  in 
showing  a  condition  below  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
countries  of  Europe.     In  the  French  colonies,  the  decay  of 


Ch.  xi.]  Religion  among  Colonists.  247 

the  influence  of  the  Roman  Church  is  only  a  reflection  of  its 
decay  in  France,  but  it  goes  even  farther,  for  the  reasons  just 
indicated. 

The  religious  element  in  British  colonization  has  on  the 
whole  been  continuously  present,  but  in  varying  degrees. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  colonization  totally  lacked  it : 
and  as  a  rule  it  was  incorporated  with  it  in  about  the  same 
degree  as  it  was  vitally  operative  at  home.  The  Hakluyt 
records  show  it  always  present  in  the  early  stages,  and  men 
eminent  for  piety  at  home  were  amongst  the  chief  fosterers 
of  early  colonies.  A  Royal  Ordinance  was  attached  to  the 
Virginian  Charter  to  the  following  effect  : 

'  That  the  said  presidents,  councils,  and  the  ministers,  should  pro- 
vide that  the  Word  and  Service  of  God  be  preached,  planted,  and  used, 
not  only  in  the  said  colonies,  but  also,  as  much  as  might  be,  among 
the  savages  bordering  among  them,  according  to  the  rites  and  doc- 
trines of  the  Church  of  England.' 

The  expedition  contained  a  chaplain,  Robert  Hunt,  who 
received  official  authority  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
by  the  special  recommendation  of  Hakluyt.  How  amid  the 
log-cabins  of  James  Town  worship  was  performed  with  a  sail 
for  a  roof  and  a  bar  of  wood  nailed  to  two  trees  for  a  pulpit, 
until  presently  'a  homely  thing  like  a  barne'  was  constructed, 
we  read  in  John  Smith's  narratives.  In  these  rude  tabernacles, 
however,  'we  had,5  he  says,  'our  Prayers  daily,  with  our 
Homily  on  Sundaies.'  When  the  colony  was  settled  the 
Assembly  assigned  tithes  to  the  clergy,  imposed  penalties  on 
absence  from  public  worship,  and  on  breaches  of  the  law  of 
rest  for  the  Sabbath,  and  otherwise  clearly  and  definitely 
assumed  that  Virginia  was  to  be  likerhome. 

In  the  New  England  States  the  refugees  organized  their 
churches  according  to  their  own  ideas,  but  the  local  Govern- 
ments had  control,  while  in  the  Middle  States  religion  was 
organized  for  the  most  part  without  the  direction  of  the 
political  Governments.  Help  from  home  was  never  quite 
lacking.  A  company  to  promote  religion  in  New  England  was 
formed  by  Act  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  1649,  and  a  general 
collection  on  its  behalf  ordered  by  Cromwell ;  and  this  same 


248  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  xi. 

company  afterwards  enjoyed  the  support  and  counsel  of  Robert 
Boyle.  In  Queen  Anne's  reign  Dr.  Bray  was  the  chief  instru- 
ment in  founding  the  oldest  existing  societies  for  this  purpose 
— the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,  and  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel.  Of  the  five  persons 
present  at  the  first  recorded  meeting  of  the  former,  a  peer, 
two  lawyers,  and  a  soldier,  met  to  deliberate  with  Dr.  Bray ; 
the  scholar  and  soldier  who  founded  All  Souls'  Library  at 
Oxford  founded  also  a  college  in  the  West  Indies  of  a  clearly 
religious  type  and  for  mainly  religious  purposes.  Bishop 
Berkeley  tried  for  years  to  obtain  a  college  for  the  North 
American  colonies,  but  ineffectually,  owing  to  the  indifference 
of  Walpole.  The  two  most  eminent  Bishops  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Butler  and  Wilson,  were  ardent  supporters  of  re- 
ligious enterprise  for  both  colonists  and  native  peoples. 
Even  in  the  moral  chaos  of  the  convict  settlement  at  Botany 
Bay  in  early  days  the  religious  element  was  there,  and  of 
a  high  quality.  Mr.  Payne,  a  very  reserved  writer,  says 
(p.  168),  'The  only  civilizing  element  in  the  place  was  the 
presence  of  a  devoted  clergyman  named  Johnson,  who  had 
voluntarily  accompanied  the  first  batch  of  convicts.'  Johnson 
laboured  unceasingly  among  the  convicts  :  he  built  a  church 
for  them  at  his  own  expense,  although  he  is  obliged  to  add 
that  'they  soon  burnt  it  down.'  And  so  it  has  continued. 
Every  branch  of  the  Christian  Society  which  has  flourished 
in  England  has  been  able  to  reproduce  itself  abroad ; 
and  on  the  whole  we  may  say  that,  as  a  reproduction  of 
British  Christianity  in  its  varieties,  and  to  a  very  con- 
siderable degree  in  its  range  of  influence,  the  work  has 
been  done.  In  most  of  the  chief  colonies  all  the  great 
branches  have  a  representation,  and  usually  in  proportion  to 
the  numbers  of  those  of  their  members,  not  who  remain  at 
home,  but  who  have  taken  part  in  emigration.  Of  course 
there  is  some  change  in  relative  strength,  some  shaking  loose 
from  old  associations,  and  forming  of  new  ones ;  and  it  would 
seem,  if  we  take  the  English  people  in  America  into  account 
as  well,  that  Methodism  has  been  most  successful  in  gathering 
those  who  have  made  a  change.    The  State  Church  has  of 


Ch.  xi.]  Religion  among  Colonists.  249 

course  lost  many  adherents  in  colonies  where  there  is  no 
religion  *  as  by  law  established/  but  not  so  many  as  might 
have  been  expected  in  our  present  colonies,  where  the 
'  Church  of  England,'  as  they  insist  on  calling  it  still,  has  on 
the  whole  more  adherents  than  any  of  the  divisions  ranked 
as  '  Nonconformists '  at  home. 

In  the  British  colonies  religion  is  affected  by  the  scattered 
character  of  the  occupation  and  the  comparative  isolation  of 
many  of  the  colonists ;  but  even  more  by  the  general  absorp- 
tion in  industrial  life,  and  a  considerable  materialization  of 
thought  and  life.  Hence  we  do  not  find  either  (1)  that  striking 
spiritual  power  has  been  developed  among  them  as  a  whole, 
or  (2)  that  there  is  so  large  a  residuum  estranged  from  reli- 
gion by  the  absence  of  opportunities  to  discharge  the  ele- 
mentary duties  of  orderliness,  thrift,  temperance,  and  mutual 
help.  There  is  a  greater  general  satisfaction  with  everyday  life, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  less  call  for  militant  evangelization  on 
the  other.  That  the  Christian  virtues  flourish  in  personal  cha- 
racter and  family  life  is  not,  however,  to  be  denied  because 
the  zeal  which  works  out  of  doors  is  less  needed.  As  the 
towns  grow  larger,  and  the  residuary  class  at  one  end  and 
the  idle  class  at  the  other  grow  larger,  the  experience  of 
Europe  may  be  repeated,  and  an  aggressive  character  be 
called  out  in  men  and  women  whose  ardour  is  latent  as  yet. 

But  on  the  intellectual  side  a  competent  observer,  Bishop 
Moorhouse,  has  publicly  expressed  his  opinion  that  religious 
interests  are  on  the  whole  more  active  in  the  colonies  than 
among  the  industrial  classes  at  home.  The  problems  raised 
by  religion,  and  their  treatment  by  the  intelligence  of  men, 
find  interested  readers  and  thinkers  in  many  a  remote  town- 
ship or  solitary  agricultural  station.  Such  are  some  of  the 
men  who  pass  lonely  evenings  over  their  log-fires  with  books 
and  newspapers  of  whom  the  Bishop  said,  '  It  is  a  bracing 
exercise,  and  a  keen  delight,  I  can  assure  you,  to  pour  out  the 
deepest  thoughts  of  one's  heart  to  such  an  audience  of 
thoughtful  men,  so  still,  so  eager  and  appreciative.  Thought 
is  alive,  feeling  is  intense  with  them.' 


250  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XL 

Religious  Federation.       • 

Religion  contributes  a  powerful  element  in  the  union  of 
home  and  the  colonies.  The  Federations  of  the  Churches 
form  an  important  mechanism  of  sympathy  and  common 
interest.  The  gathering  of  nearly  150  Bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  her  daughter-churches  in  a  Pan- 
Anglican  Conference  every  ten  years  under  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  is  a  federative  event  of  great  effect — the 
political  barrier  between  us  and  the  United  States  being  in 
this  rendered  inoperative  by  union  for  the  high  purposes  of 
religion.  And  the  majority  of  the  colonial  Bishops  at  present 
are  English  clergy,  the  important  dioceses  especially  desiring 
to  place  themselves  under  the  direction  of  clergy  of  standing 
and  experience  gained  in  work  at  home.  The  Presbyterian 
churches  have  had  conferences ;  the  Methodists  are  accus- 
tomed to  send  delegates  from  home  to  colonial  conferences 
and  to  receive  colonial  delegates  here.  Even  the  essentially 
detached  character  of  the  Congregationalist  system  proves 
to  be  not  incompatible  with  mutual  aid  and  counsel  by 
utilizing  the  travel  of  eminent  preachers  from  time  to  time 
in  the  colonies,  and  even  occasionally  by  arranging  expressly 
for  visitations  of  this  kind.  The  Roman  Church  is,  of  course, 
federative  in  influence,  but  it  looks  to  a  centre  outside  the 
empire. 

Beligion  and  the  Native  Races. 

The  records  of  the  missionary  enterprise  of  the  Christian 
Church  since  the  opening  out  of  the  way  to  the  East  and 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World  form  a  chapter  of  history 
of  special  interest,  variety,  and  depth  of  meaning.  It  must 
necessarily  awaken  very  different  feelings  in  different  minds, 
and  a  summary  of  a  kind  likely  to  be  satisfying  to  all  is  out 
of  the  question.  Elements  vital  to  some  are  dubious  to 
others  ;  but  though  the  relative  importance  of  both  efforts  and 
results  cannot  be  estimated  in  the  absence  of  agreement  as 
to  a  common  measure,  there  are  some  aspects  which  can 
be  dealt  with  by  history  as  an  investigation  of  events  purely 


Ch.  XL]  Religion  and  the  Native  Races.  251 

secular.  The  ultimate  issues  of  these  enterprises  may  be 
in  another  world,  but  they  have  had  iimnediate  issues  within 
the  realm  of  things  strictly  belonging  to  the  life  that  now 
is.  If  holiness  and  righteousness  are  the  ways  to  God  and 
the  results  of  conversion  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  it  can  be 
seen  whether  men  have  walked  in  these  ways  and  shown 
fruits  of  such  a  faith  while  still  on  their  road  towards  the 
portals  beyond  which  history  cannot  penetrate.  The  moral 
and  social  lives  of  the  peoples  influenced  by  missionary 
enterprise  form,  therefore,  an  objective  study  which  history 
can  estimate,  and  without  a  consideration  of  them  no 
history  is  either  candid  or  complete. 

In  this  way  some  objective  results  may  be  given  :  there 
may  be  others ;  the  following  are  offered  as  indications  and 
outlines  of  the  influences  which  have  been  exerted. 

(i)  The  exhibition  of  character. 

There  is  good  reason  for  placing  this  as  the  foremost  influ- 
ence of  all :  for  the  preachers  of  Christ  have  themselves  placed 
His  character  in  the  front  of  their  teaching,  and  their  own 
influence  has  to  a  great  extent  followed  from  the  exhibition 
to  the  Nature-peoples  of  their  own  character  as  influenced 
by  His. 

The  range  of  choice  for  examples  is  marvellously  abun- 
dant :  before  every  mind  there  arise  at  once  memories  of 
some  devoted  men  and  women ;  before  each,  perhaps,  some 
chosen  heroes  or  heroines  set  firm  in  regard  and  love.  There 
are  limitations  in  our  capacity  for  admiration,  and  these  limita- 
tions are  reached,  to  some  of  us,  again  and  again  when  we 
think  over  the  romance  of  missionary  history.  St.  Francis 
Xavier  and  Henry  Martyn  ;  John  Eliot  and  William  Carey; 
Adoniram  Judson  and  Alexander  Duff;  and  many  a  noble 
wife  with  name  indelibly  associated  with  her  husband's, — do 
we  need  to  wish  men  and  women  to  be  better  than  these  ? 
There  have  gone  to  every  part  of  our  empire  where  Nature- 
peoples  have  been  touched,  men  of  the  finest  moral  qualities 
— some  rough  in  manners,  others  of  the  highest  refinement, 
but  in  the  force  of  moral  and  spiritual  energy  alike.  Every 
Native  Church  is  built  on  some  one  or  more  of  these  as 


252  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.xi. 

foundation  stones;  some  of  them  laid  in  short  lives  and 
heroic  deaths,  others  in  labours  continued  from  youth  to 
advanced  old  age. 

If  these  characters  had  been  only  grand  their  objective  in- 
fluence would  have  been  less.  But  they  were  grand  on  simple 
lines,  and  Selwyn  and  Patteson,  the  flower  of  Eton  and  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  washing  and  nursing  their  Polynesian  boys, 
are  only  like  the  rougher-bred  shoemakers  and  factory-hands, 
such  as  Carey  and  Livingstone,  in  their  inability  to  regard 
kindness  between  one  human  being  and  another  as  anything 
else  than  both  the  law  of  nature  and  the  law  of  Christ. 
Let  us  sum  up  their  virtues  and  analyse  their  ethics,  if  we 
can  :  their  characters  have  lived  before  these  peoples,  and 
the  Aryan  at  his  highest  has  moved  among  the  Mongols  and 
the  Negroes,  and  that  directly  in  the  name  of  the  supreme 
object  of  his  worship. 

(ii)  The  Native  races  owe  to  the  religious  preachers  and 
their  mere  presence  among  them  the  idea  of  the  unity  of 
the  whole  race.  From  their  contact  with  the  white  man 
apart  from  missionaries  they  could  never  have  drawn  this 
inference.  Of  course,  some  races  offer  no  particular  welcome 
to  this  idea  :  the  Brahmans  probably  despise  us  in  their 
hearts  as  outside  caste,  and  refuse  to  admit  us  within  their 
sacred  pale.  But  taking  a  broad  view  of  the  race,  the  lifting 
up  of  all  peoples  to  the  level  of  the  foremost  has  no  more 
potent  instrument  than  this  idea  that  they  can  be  lifted  up. 
In  classic  antiquity  men  thought  that  Nature  might  and  did 
produce  many  human  '  races.5  Christian  civilization  has  been 
the  first  to  insist  on  humanity  as  implying  a  reality  which 
has  no  counterpart  in  the  cognate  conception  'animality.' 
A  unity  is  held  to  underlie  the  human  race ;  a  unity  which, 
though  unrecognised  in  the  past,  must  be  made  really 
operative  in  the  future.  To  invite  into  a  common  inheritance 
of  the  earth  and  of  all  that  civilization  can  give  is  perceived 
to  be  the  vocation  of  the  missionary ;  he  indeed  goes  farther 
and  proclaims  a  still  more  powerful  idea  in  the  unity  of 
immortal  destiny.  Thus  the  unity  of  the  race  and  a  sense 
of  community  of  interest  between  races  hitherto  sundered  is 


Ch.  xi.]  Religion  and  the  Native  Races.  253 

being  produced  by  the  preaching  of  a  single  gospel  for 
mankind. 

(iii)  An  unselfish  aim  after  their  good,  persistently 
and  continuously  pursued,  has  been  exhibited  to  the  Native 
races. 

Among  all  the  fierce  competitions  of  the  new-comers  for 
the  wealth  the  natives  may  have  possessed  or  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  lands  where  they  lived,  the  natives  might  well 
stand  aghast  and  alarmed  at  the  '  Christian's  thirst  for  gold.' 

The  Spaniards  in  America  cannot  have  appeared  to  the 
cowering  and  plundered  natives  to  have  derived  their  power 
from  a  Good  Being.  The  'dregs  of  Spain'  indeed  were 
upon  them,  and  suicide  was  over  and  over  again  their 
refuge.  '  But,'  writes  Mr.  Doyle  {America,  p.  30),  '  there  was 
at  least  one  class  of  Spaniards  who  were  not  merely  free 
from  blame  in  this  matter,  but  deserve  the  highest  praise. 
For  all  that  could  be  done  to  protect  the  natives,  and  to  bring 
their  grievances  before  the  Government  in  Spain,  and  to 
improve  their  condition  in  every  way,  was  done  by  the  clergy. 
It  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  no  class  of  men  ever 
suffered  so  much  and  toiled  so  unsparingly  for  the  good  of 
their  fellow-creatures  as  the  Spanish  priests  and  missionaries 
in  America.'  This  recognition  of  goodness  is  in  its  con- 
cluding sentence  relatively  excessive :  but  it  is  sufficient  to 
show  that  amidst  all  the  oppressions  and  villanies  perpe- 
trated upon  the  natives  of  America  there  was  in  Christian 
missionaries  one  set  of  men  devoted  to  the  natives'  good.  And 
it  is  the  same  in  our  own  colonies  in  their  early  stages.  The 
whalers  who  harassed  New  Zealand,  the  sandal- wood  wretches 
of  Polynesia,  the  convicts  of  Tasmania,  the  alcohol  vendors 
who  overrode  native  chieftains  in  South  Africa  and  drenched 
to  madness  and  death  their  tribesmen,  stand  at  the  extreme 
end,  not  only  of  European  barbarity,  but  of  all  barbarity 
whatever,  for  there  was  in  them  the  mercilessness  of  selfish 
greed,  not  the  fanatical  rejoicing  in  the  blood  of  enemies. 
And  amidst  all  these  darkest  doings  Christian  missionaries 
ever  kept  pressing  in,  and,  as  men  of  the  Cross  and  men  of 
the  Bible,  soothed  and  turned  the  spirit  of  despair  and  fear 


254  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XI. 

and  hatred  that  seized  upon  the  black  men's  minds  in  the 
early  days  of  their  contact  with  our  fellow-countrymen.  All 
these  things  are  as  much  matters  of  fact  as  any  which  human 
history  has  to  show.  Let  the  early  history  of  New  Zealand 
be  read  :  or  let  the  autobiographical  account  of  some  men 
working  in  New  Guinea  and  the  New  Hebrides  Islands  in 
the  closing  years  of  this  century  be  read  candidly,  and  the 
meaning  of  their  lives  as  a  demonstration  of  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  good  of  the  natives  stands  out  clear.  If  they 
have  taught  them  nothing  else  they  have  not  left  home  and 
struggled  there  in  vain. 

Of  course,  to  some  extent,  much  missionary  work  has  a 
character  of  officialism  and  of  routine,  which  presents  to 
the  native  mind  the  missionary  as  an  ordinary  professional 
man.  But  there  are  hundreds  of  lives  which  were  not  by 
routine,  and  which  no  sense  of  professional  duties  could  have 
supported,  even  if  it  had  given  them  their  beginning.  And 
lives  of  this  kind  have  salted  the  whole  history  of  Europeans. 
Even  the  Red  Indians  of  North  America  have  always  had  a 
succession  of  white  men  to»reverence  and  trust.  When  men 
and  women  have  learned  the  lesson  of '  the  washing  of  the 
disciples'  feet,'  and  have  gone  out  in  that  spirit,  as  in  every 
colony  some  have  done  for  every  Church,  the  native  has 
known  it,  and  he  has  been  partially  redeemed  from  despair. 

(iv)  A  HIGH  tone  in  DAILY  LIFE.  The  example  of  some 
merchants  and  of  some  Government  officials  has  been  very 
effective  as  an  educational  influence,  especially  as  they  exhibit 
the  standard  at  which  men  may  be  expected  to  aim.  It 
is  they  who  have  shown  how  business  could  be  conducted 
with  honour,  how  servants  could  be  employed  with  considera- 
tion, how  want  could  be  relieved  with  kindness;  and  when 
they  have  been  able  to  take  families  with  them  they  have 
shown  them  the  Teutonic  unit  of  social  life,  the  '  home? 
These  examples  are  of  immeasurable  importance,  though 
their  effect  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  penetrating  so  deeply 
as  does  the  exhibition  of  self-devotion  for  others'  good.  The 
well-ordered  lay  household  is  in  a  colony  a  pearl  of  great  price 
among  the  native  peoples  ;  but  its  place  is  intermediary  in 


Ch.  XL]  Religion  and  the  Native  Races.  255 

the  order  of  ideas  between  the  native's  heathenism  and  the 
unselfish  faith  of  the  missionary.  These  in  combination 
have  often  worked  wonders;  and  in  India  especially  the 
share  of  Christian  laymen  in  drawing  the  Native  mind  towards 
union  with  what  is  best  in  the  English  mind  constitutes  a 
noble  record.  Is  there  to-day  a  fairer  purpose  open  to  a  lay- 
man than  that  of  living  a  just,  upright,  moral,  and  benevolent 
life  as  a  merchant  or  a  magistrate  among  these  sensitive  and 
impressible  races?  To  demonstrate  to  them  what  integrity  and 
industry  can  do  is  in  every  layman's  power.  The  drawback 
to  the  organization  of  missions  lies  just  in  this,  that  they 
institute  a  delegation  of  functions,  some  of  which  ought  not 
to  be  delegated.  The  missionary  is  taken  as  the  semi-official 
representative  of  elementary  virtues  which  the  whole  white 
community  should  show.  An  occasional  subscription  sets  up 
the  mission-station,  and  then  frequently  indifference  and 
inactivity  on  the  part  of  laymen  are  held  to  be  justified 
thereby,  or  at  least  condoned. 

Still,  we  may  set  down  as  one  great  influence  of  religion  the 
setting  before  the  natives  examples  of  religious  and  moral  men 
in  mercantile  and  official  positions  living  amongst  them,  and 
especially  by  such  as  have  households,  godly  and  orderly. 
Respect  for  law  in  the  house  and  in  the  colony  ;  temper- 
ance and  chastity :  these  are  virtues  which  the  native  can 
appreciate  :  he  despises  and  loathes  the  white  man  who  has 
them  not,  and  is,  by  every  testimony  of  travellers,  docile  and 
grateful  to  those  who  live  by  them. 

There  are  some  two  hundred  Protestant  missionary  so- 
cieties in  Britain,  Germany,  Switzerland,  France,  Denmark, 
Holland,  and  America,  besides  those  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Every  movement  of  our  colonization  is  now  accompanied 
sooner  or  later  by  a  religious  embassy :  often  indeed,  as  in 
Fiji,  Bechuanaland,  Burmah,  and  New  Guinea — to  speak  of 
extensions  since  1870  only — the  religious  movement  was 
made  first. 

Two  isolated  points  may  be  noted  : — 

(1)  The  religious  enterprise  has  exceeded  the  bounds  of 
Empire.     The  civilization  of  Europe  has  not  been  confined 


256  Education  and  Religion.  [Ch.  XI. 

to  the  places  where  it  has  set  up  political  sway :  religion  is 
taken  to  be  part  of  civilization.  While  some  societies  are 
most  anxious  to  recognise  the  imperial  bond,  and  to  make 
real  our  common  citizenship,  others,  leaving  this  to  those 
already  in  that  field,  take  interest  in  China  and  Japan  and 
the  lands  of  Islam.  Like  commerce,  Christianity  ignores 
colour  and  government  and  clime. 

(2)  The  amount  of  knowledge  of  our  empire  and  of  native 
races  of  the  world  possessed  by  ordinary  English  people  is 
not  really  extensive  :  but  it  is  considerable,  and  what  there 
is  has  come  to  them  more  through  the  missionary  societies 
in  which  they  take  part,  than  from  any  other  source.  Geo- 
graphy gives  a  start,  but  the  races  of  mankind  are  mostly 
known  to  English  people  of  the  classes  who  do  not  travel, 
from  the  addresses  and  lectures  of  the  missionaries  who  are 
at  home  for  rest  or  in  retirement.  Thus  we  may  say  that  the 
knowledge  necessary  for  the  proper  exercise  of  citizenship  is 
supplied  to  a  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  chiefly 
by  their  religious  organizations. 

III.  The  State  and  Religion. 

We  distinguish  three  attitudes. 

State  Direction  :  For  example,  Spain  and  Portugal 
as  lay  arms  of  the  Roman  Church,  with  an  Inquisition 
against  heretics  applied  in  Mexico  more  uncompro- 
misingly than  in  Spain  itself;  England,  while  possessed 
of  an  undivided  Church,  sending  out  chaplains  as  a 
matter  of  course  ;  New  South  Wales  starting  with  its 
Government  grants  for  chaplains ;  the  West  Indies 
with  their  endowed  bishoprics. 

Opposition  ;  Government  damping  effort,  and  standing 
still  when  movement  was  desired  by  individuals  :  as 
from  Berkeley's  time  throughout  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  especially  in  India  until  1 813. 

Neutrality  :  Government  standing  aloof,  but  placing 
missionaries  on  the  footing  of  ordinary  subjects,  and 
their  churches  and  schools  on  that  of  ordinary  property, 


Ch.  XL]  The  State  and  Religion.  257 

entitled  to  the  ordinary  protection  of  persons  following 
lawful  pursuits.  This  is  rapidly  becoming  the  universal 
method.  Religious  work  is  done  after  the  analogy  of 
our  colonizing  work  in  Africa,  the  '  Chartered  Com- 
panies '  finding  their  parallels  in  the  '  Missionary 
Societies'  of  the  home  country.  It  should  be  observed 
that  some  colonies  have  begun  to  take  an  independent 
part ;  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  Australia,  New  Zealand, 
all  have  voluntary  societies  at  work  among  native 
races  within  their  borders,  and  even  farther  afield. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Some  General  Reflections. 

British  Foreign  Policy. 

In  relation  to  the  general  history  of  the  United  Kingdom 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  we  have  seen  how  largely  her 
foreign  relations  have  been  affected  by  the  contest  for  com- 
merce and  empire  beyond  Europe.  No  one  who  rises  from 
even  a  rapid  perusal  of  Professor  Seeley's  Expansion  of 
England  can  ever  again  look  upon  our  history  as  determined 
by  insular  and  internal  influences  only.  It  is  said  that  we 
must  be  on  our  guard  against  the  book  carrying  us  too  far  ; 
we  are  told  that  its  formula  is  not  complex  enough,  and  that 
it  only  fits  selected  facts.  This  objection  is  not  to  be  sum- 
marily disposed  of.  But  the  view  is  not  peculiar  to  Professor 
Seeley  ;  it  is  the  view  of  the  historians  of  the  country  most 
concerned  in  the  contest.  Michelet  and  Duruy  say  the 
same  thing.  They  tell  us  that  France  and  England  entered 
upon  the  path  of  colonial  enterprise  together,  and,  because 
they  found  they  were  rivals,  struck  at  each  other's  heart. 
France  supported  Cromwell  against  Charles  I,  Charles  II 
against  Cromwell,  and  James  II  against  William  of  Orange. 
England  could  find  no  similar  means  of  injuring  France, 
for  France  suppressed  her  own  internal  feuds  by  the 
expulsion  of  Protestants :  but  we  refused  to  allow  Spain  to 
open  her  colonies  to  France  ;  we  endeavoured  to  secure  an 
unfair  predominance  on  the  seas  ;  we  compelled  France  to 
renounce  her  ally,  Prussia,  whom  we  assisted  with  our 
gold ;  and  when  she  drew  into  alliance  with  Austria  it  was 
in  reversal  of  her  own  policy  of  two  hundred  years'  standing. 
France  had  once  been  the  defender  of  liberty  against  Spain 


British  Foreign  Policy.  259 

and  the  Emperor,  and  it  was  to  her  a  fatal  change  of  policy. 
It  was  her  own  recently-developed  political  absolutism  that 
lured  her  along  this  ruinous  path,  but  it  did  not  prevent  her 
from  helping  our  republican  colonies,  and  when  her  Revolution 
came,  and  she  resumed  the  lead  of  Europe,  we  were  still  her 
foe,  implacable,  until  Trafalgar  and  Waterloo  ended  the 
contest,  and  then  there  came  a  peace  between  us  which  has 
never  been  actively  disturbed.  From  Germany  Dr.  Geffcken 
expresses  the  same  view  ;  every  war  since  Cromwell  between 
Great  Britain  and  France  or  Holland  has  had  as  its  guiding 
motive  colonial  policy  (British  Empire,  p.  63). 

In  our  general  foreign  policy  in  Europe  the  Peace  of 
1 81 5  practically  closed  our  period  of  activity.  We  guaran- 
teed Belgium,  and  fought  for  Greece  and  for  Turkey ; 
but  the  cases  of  Belgium  and  Greece  were  peculiar,  and  we 
uphold  Turkey  for  reasons  connected  with  Asia  rather  than 
with  Europe.  The  grounds  for  any  other  intervention  among 
European  nations  would  have  been  so  platonic  that  it  is 
no  wonder  that  a  policy  of  non-intervention  replaced  that 
of  activity  in  the  favour  of  the  commercial  classes,  who 
before  had  been  the  mainstay  of  war.  And  looking  at 
Europe  only  this  policy  has  justified  itself  completely.  When 
we  look  farther  afield,  however,  we  see  that  our  non-interven- 
tion must  be  limited  to  non-intervention  in  French  and 
Italian  and  German  disputes ;  if  we  look  outside  Europe,  over 
the  world,  such  a  policy  has  no  meaning,  except  on  the 
assumption  that  we  are  prepared  to  see  our  empire  dis- 
membered if  any  nation  should  choose  to  move.  Thus 
the  views  of  both  non-interventionists  and  of  those  who 
have  insisted  on  England  being  active  in  the  councils  of 
the  world,  are  explained  when  we  look  to  the  quarter  towards 
which  each  party  is  directing  its  gaze.  As  it  stands  now,  it 
is  difficult  to  imagine  any  purely  European  difficulty  arising 
that  would  call  us  to  arms.  An  attack  upon  Belgium  hardly 
would  do  so,  nor  upon  Denmark,  nor  even  Holland  ;  if  they 
cannot  stand  alone  it  is  difficult  to  persuade  us  now  that 
Britain  ought  to  prop  them  up,  even  if  it  were  possible. 
The  centre  of  gravity  of  our  interest  is  certainly  in  our  own 
S  2 


260  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  XII. 

kingdom,  but  as  no  Power  desires  to  subjugate  us  in  our 
home,  our  anxieties  are  only  for  the  empire  beyond,  and  our 
foreign  policy  is  bound  up  with  that. 

Economic  History. 

Here  the  study  of  our  colonial  development  is  essential. 
The  new  sources  of  supply  and  raw  material,  the  new  de- 
mand for  manufactures,  the  new  fields  for  capital  and  labour, 
have  affected  interest  and  profits  and  wages,  all  the 
material  of  life  at  home,  and  have  added  new  industrial 
communities  to  the  realm.  Our  policy  has  been  affected 
by  the  political  union  of  these  colonies  with  ourselves.  An 
economic  bond  was  attached  to  it,  and  theories  of  monopoly 
were  secure  in  popular  favour. 

In  the  development  of  our  industrial  organization  to  its 
present  leading  position  in  the  world  our  colonies,  planta- 
tions, and  factories  have  had  great  share.  Other  causes 
were  operative  in  England,  of  course,  such  as  that  organiza- 
tion of  capital  in  which,  as  Professor  Marshall  points  out, 
we  showed  the  way,  and  that  organization  of  labour  by 
means  of  money  payments  instead  of  dues,  which  rendered 
labour  mobile,  and  therefore  ready  for  the  new  era  of 
inventions  and  improved  processes.  It  is  of  England,  taken 
together  with  her  colonies,  including  America,  that  it  is 
said  that  '  she  has  set  the  tone  of  modern  business  as  well  as 
of  modern  politics '  (Prof.  Marshall,  Economics,  p.  yj). 

Our  colonies,  again  including  America,  have  contributed, 
and  are  contributing,  to  the  development  of  industrial  pro- 
cesses. Not  only  has  America  already  contributed  more 
than  her  share  of  mechanical  inventions,  but  in  the  inven- 
tion of  methods  of  combination  for  production  and  for  trade 
she  seems  to  be  destined  to  take  the  lead  amongst  English 
communities.  The  powers  of  capital  have  never  been  so 
vigorously  and  effectively  wielded  in  commerce  and  industry 
as  they  have  been  in  America.  The  forms  of  activity  long 
displayed  in  England  by  Jewish  capitalists  have  been  taken 
up  and  developed  in  America  by  English  and  German  com- 
binations. Our  present  colonies  are  as  yet  too  young  to  take 
a  leading  position,  but  the  signs  point. to  their  following. in 


Ch.  xii.]  Knowledge  and  Art.  261 

the  vivacity  and   dexterity   of    American   speculation   and 
organization. 

Political  Science. 

Political  science  has  a  rich  field  of  material  in  the  history 
of  the  political  institutions  which  have  been  developed  from 
the  English  model,  and  exist  in  great  variety  where  other 
peoples  than  those  of  English  blood  have  to  be  taken  into 
account.  And  fields  for  fresh  research  are  offered  in  the 
changes  in  social  institutions  due  to  changes  of  climate,  to 
mixture  of  German,  Dutch,  and  other  European  blood  with 
English,  to  a  rise  in  the  level  of  comfort,  to  a  freedom  from 
ancient  custom  and  from  the  slowly  yielding  habitudes  of 
the  Old  World. 

Knowledge  and  Art. 

In  the  realm  of  knowledge  and  of  art,  as  has  been  already 
said,  no  great  achievements  on  the  part  of  our  colonies  are  to 
be  recorded,  nor  is  it  easy  to  maintain  that  the  historian 
of  European  philosophy  or  science  or  art  would  need  to 
write  a  separate  chapter  for  the  colonial  contribution  up  to 
the  end  of  our  present  century.  Materials  for  new  science 
and  new  art  have  been  presented  in  abundant  variety, 
especially  in  new  aspects  of  physical  nature,  in  the  op- 
portunities of  a  period  of  great  activity  for  the  display  of 
the  vigour  and  energy  of  men,  and  in  the  knowledge  gained 
of  man  himself  in  the  new  regions  opened  out.  But  that 
much  of  this  material  for  knowledge  or  art  is  dependent 
upon  empire,  and  that  it  might  not  have  been  attained  by  us 
without  our  having  empire,  is  not  certain ;  indeed,  the 
contrary  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  is  taken  advantage  of 
quite  as  much  by  the  Germans  as  by  ourselves.  In  knowledge 
of  the  languages,  religions,  and  characters  of  the  peoples  of 
India,  where  we  ought  to  have  an  advantage  by  reason  of 
the  great  number  of  educated  Englishmen  who  reside  there 
and  of  Hindus  who  come  here,  our  superiority  over  the 
Germans  is  by  no  means  beyond  dispute.  But  the  time 
may  come  when  the  English  will  be  first  in  interest,  sympathy, 
and  knowledge  of  these  new  peoples,  their  thoughts  and 
ways,  their  needs  and  capacities,  by  reason  of  the  respon- 


262  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

sibility  which  has  been  placed  upon  Englishmen,  and  upon 
them  alone. 

Religion. 

At  the  opening  of  his  work  on  Political  Economy  {Econo- 
mics, p.  i ) Professor  Marshall  writes:  '  The  two  great  forming 
agencies  of  the  world's  history  have  been  the  religious  and 
the  economic.  Here  and  there  the  ardour  of  the  military  or 
the  artistic  spirit  has  been  for  a  while  predominant  ;  but 
religious  and  economic  influences  have  nowhere  been  dis- 
placed from  the  front  rank  even  for  a  time  ;  and  they  have 
nearly  always  been  more  important  than  all  others  put 
together.' 

This  weighty  utterance  finds  signal  verification  in  the  his- 
tory of  English  colonization  ;  every  word  of  it  could  be  proved 
to  be  rigorously  accurate  as  applied  to  this  great  chapter  of 
European  history.  In  the  infancy  of  our  colonization  both  of 
these  agencies  were  operative,  and  they  are  both  at  work  to- 
day. There  are  many  who  follow  with  interest  the  develop- 
ment of  our  colonies  as  fields  for  the  employment  of  capital 
and  labour ;  there  are  others  who  have  not  been  moved  to 
any  personal  interest  in  them  until  colonization  is  presented 
as  a  part  of  the  provision  for  the  religious  education  of  the 
world.  The  spirit  of  military  and  naval  conquest  had  its  day, 
and  has  now  passed  by  ;  the  spirit  of  Art  has  not  yet  appeared 
as  an  agency,  but  the  spirit  of  Science  is  very  effective.  But 
to-day,  as  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  it  is  chiefly  the  economic 
and  the  religious  impulses  which  draw  Englishmen  to  parti- 
cipate in  this  movement. 

The  Six  Great  Empires. 

Since  1815  the  world  has  tended  to  aggregation  of  nation- 
alities into  great  States,  or  of  hitherto  separated  portions  of 
nationalities.  Of  these  six  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  influence, 
and  much  must  depend  upon  their  mutual  relationship  and 
upon  their  several  developments.  The  West  of  Europe  con- 
tributes three — the  British  Empire,  France,  Germany ; 
America,  the  United  States  ;  Asia,  the  Chinese  Empire  ;  and 
besides  these,  there  is  the  semi-European,  semi-Asiatic  power, 
Russia. 


Ch.  XII.] 


The  Six  Great  Empires. 


263 


Of  these  the  United  States  has  hitherto  endeavoured 
to  live  in  a  ring  fence,  with  occasional  demonstrations  of 
hostility  when  other  nations  have  threatened  American 
territory.  But  this  isolation  cannot  be  entirely  and  con- 
sistently maintained.  Seventy  years  ago  President  Monro 
enunciated  the  principle,  which  his  successor  formulated 
definitely,  that  the  United  States  could  not  suffer  European 
Governments  to  hinder  the  free  development  of  important 
parts  of  the  New  World.  The  protest  was  mainly  against  the 
attempts  of  Spain  to  coerce  her  rebellious  or  already  revolted 
colonies.  Later  the  Americans  entered  a  protest  against  a 
French  occupation  of  Mexico,  and  no  doubt  they  would,  in 
some  irregular  manner,  have  prevented  it,  even  if  the 
Mexicans  had  failed  to  do  so  ;  they  would  not  allow  Spain  to 
sell  Cuba  to  any  of  the  great  empires  if  she  wished  ; 
they  could  hardly  suffer  Denmark  to  part  with  Curacao 
either  ;  nor  would  they  allow  Hayti  to  settle  its  own  fate  if  it 
desired  a  European  protectorate  ;  they  have  intervened  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands  sufficiently  to  prevent  any  protectorate 
being  set  up  there  ;  and  have  actually  entered  themselves  into 
conjoint  protectorship,  with  Britain  and  Germany,  of  Samoa. 
It  is  of  very  great  importance  to  notice  that  the  character  of 
the  United  States  population  is  becoming  very  cosmopolitan  ; 
the  tables  of  immigration  1882-9  show  an  annual  average 
of  immigrants  as  follows  : — 

Great    Britain    and    )  ,    . 

Ireland      ...     I  1^>000 

Germany 135,000 

Sweden 3  7,000 

Italy 30,000 

Russia 21,000 

Austria 21,000 

Norway 16,000 

i.  e.  British  were  only  about  one-third l. 

1  A  table  of  nationalities  for  1880  gives  American  born  29  millions, 
German  5,  Irish  4!,  English,  Scotch,  and  Welsh  2,  British  Cana- 
dians, French  Canadians,  Scandinavians,  each  about  £.  Other  Euro- 
peans i£  millions,  men  of  colour  6^,  Indians  £,  Chinese  \. 


Hungary .     .     . 

.     .       13,000 

Denmark       .     . 

.     .         8,000 

Switzerland  .     . 

.     .         7,000 

Poland      .     .     . 

.     .         4,000 

France      .     .     . 

.     .         4,000 

Netherlands .     . 

.     .         4,000 

Belgium  .     .     . 

.     .         2,000 

264  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

Russia  is  restless :  she  has  not  found  her  limits  in  Asia 
yet,  and  cannot  rest  excluded  from  the  south  of  Europe,  and 
so  she  moves  forward  by  intrigue  or  by  war. 

Germany  is  now  strong  at  home.  She  colonizes  by 
furnishing  colonists  on  an  extensive  scale.  She  is  moving 
also  for  herself,  although  she  comes  into  the  field  very  late 
and  without  much  opening.  But  in  Africa  at  three  points, 
in  remote  New  Guinea  and  neighbouring  islands,  and  through 
a  share  in  the  protection  of  Samoa,  she  is  on  the  alert. 
If  she  should  aim  at  a  protectorate  in  the  Malay  peninsula, 
she  has  already  a  strong  outpost  of  a  commercial  kind  in 
her  trading-houses  in  Bangkok  :  possibly  we  may  see  Siam 
become  her  India. 

France  is  restless,  too,  not  from  growth  of  population,  but 
from  self-respect  and  pride  K  She  feels  the  loss  of  pride  of 
place.  She  is  conscious  of  having  high  capacity  for  govern- 
ment of  the  administrative  order,  and  foreign  commerce  is 
an  essential  of  her  life.  Frenchmen  contemplate  fondly  the 
long  roll  of  the  French  possessions,  meagre  though  the  value 
of  each  item  may  be.  They  desire  to  colonize  :  their  eminent 
economists  and  leading  public  men  ponder  over  it ;  but  they 
have  always  in  their  hearts  the  fear  that  their  colonization 
cannot  be  on  a  worthy  scale,  because  they  see  the  population 
of  the  home-country  at  a  standstill.  They  declare,  however, 
that  there  is  to  be  a  new  France  at  home,  and  ask  the  world 
not  to  judge  her  only  by  the  past.  They  do  not  wish  the 
present  position  to  be  acquiesced  in  by  Frenchmen,  or 
accepted  as  final  by  England  or  the  other  nations. 

The  Chinese  Empire  presents  the  great  problem  of  all,  for 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  how  long  the  State  will  be  able  to 
control  the  people.  The  awakening  of  China  is  what  their 
leading  men  speak  of,  and  with  no  bated  breath.  The  opening 
of  her  ports  to  European  trade  has  already  proved  to  be 
quite  as  much  an  opportunity  for  their  own  people  to  go  forth 
as  for  Europeans  to  enter  in.  The  mobility  of  labour 
becomes  indeed   a   stupendous  problem  if  any  substantial 

1  The  total  emigration  from  France  during  the  years  1879-88 
was  not  5000  a  year ;  that  from  Italy  was  56,000. 


Ch.  xii.]  The  Six  Great  Empires.  265 

fraction  of  four  hundred  million  people  begin  to  move.  This 
mobility  is  certainly  setting  in  ;  the  Chinaman  already  is 
prepared  to  go  anywhere.  Soon  we  may  find  that  he  goes 
everywhere.  In  America  and  Australia  men  are  practically 
acknowledging  that  the  Chinaman  was  right  in  closing  the 
ports  of  his  country  against  men  of  different  civilization,  for 
they  are  now  reverting  to  his  policy.  American  ports  are 
already  closed,  and  the  immigration  has  fallen  from  30,000  a 
year  to  the  few  hundreds  who  can  and  will  pay  the  heavy 
dues ;  but  there  seems  to  be  an  instability  about  this  method 
if  the  four  hundred  million  people  do  really  '  awake,'  unless, 
indeed,  another  military  and  naval  era  sets  in,  to  which  the 
wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  will  appear  but  domestic 
quarrels  as  a  prelude  to  more  serious  antagonism,  not  of 
nations  but  of  races. 

In  relation  to  the  other  great  empires  the  British  Empire 
occupies  a  unique  position  by  its  close  intimacy  with  them  all. 
By  the  Freedom  of  our  Trade  we  keep  open  house  for  them, 
and  they  all  come  in  and  go  out.  This  unique  position  is  a 
consequence  of  our  pre-eminence  in  industrial  and  commer- 
cial pursuits.  Hegel  [Philosophy  of  History,  p.  475)  thus  de- 
fines our  character,  and  therefore  our  function  in  the  world  : — 

'  The  material  existence  of  England  is  based  on  com- 
merce and  industry,  and  the  English  have  undertaken  the 
weighty  responsibility  of  being  the  missionaries  of  civilization 
to  the  world ;  for  their  commercial  spirit  urges  them  to 
traverse  every  sea  and  land,  to  form  connexions  with  bar- 
barous peoples,  to  create  wants  and  stimulate  industry,  and, 
first  and  foremost,  to  establish  among  them  the  constitutions 
necessary  to  commerce,  viz.  the  relinquishment  of  a  type  of 
lawless  violence,  respect  for  property,  and  civility  to  strangers.' 

This  is  exactly  in  accordance  with  the  testimony  of  M. 
Ernest  Michel,  who  went  through  our  colonies  in  order  to 
investigate  the  reasons  for  our  success.  Our  practical  sense, 
our  readiness  to  try  experiments,  and  to  abandon  them 
if  not  successful,  only  to  resume  with  new  determination  to 
succeed,  and  the  respect  for  moral  law  shown  in  our  colonies, 
deeply  impressed  him.     This  temper  for  order  and  regularity 


266  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

and  soberness  in  fact  underlies  our  industry  and  gives  it 
substance  and  stability.  It  is  the  very  quality  noted  among 
her  roving  adventurers  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  their  '  so  good 
order  of  government,  so  good  agreement,  every  man  ready 
in  his  calling,'  which  was  discovered  at  the  outset  of  our 
investigation,  and  is  still  found  to  characterize  English 
colonists  at  its  close. 

The  progressive  character  of  our  home  development  in 
political  liberty  and  order  has  been  reflected  in  our  imperial 
history.  The  following  brief  summary  shows  how  the  place 
of  the  State  in  our  colonial  enterprise  has  varied  with  the 
stage  of  growth  of  our  political  constitution  at  home  : — 
(i)  The  Adventure  period  :  typified  by  Raleigh — the  State 

favours  and  assists  colonization, 
(ii)  Beginning  of  Imperial  assertion  :  Cromwell — the  State 

directs  colonization, 
(iii)  The  Empire  a  basis  for  Trade :   Chatham— the  State 

an  instrument  for  extending  Trade  colonies, 
(iv)  Exploration :    Cook  —  the    State   an    instrument    for 

discovery  of  new  lands, 
(v)  Trade   pure   and   simple:    Cobden   and    Bright — the 

State  dispensed  with  and  colonies  disregarded, 
(vi)  Discharge    of    Duty:     Mill— the   State    again    found 

necessary, 
(vii)   Imperialism  recognised  :    Beaconsfield !  —  the   State 
widened  and  England's  imperial  position  re-asserted. 

Rocks  Ahead. 

It  is  alleged,  however,  that  the  British  Empire  is  itself  un- 
stable and  insecure.  We  are  told  that  our  armaments  are  not 
on  a  scale  which  would  enable  us  to  defend  ourselves,  and  that 
we  are  practically  retaining  our  present  position  at  the  mercy 
of  other  nations  kept  asunder  by  jealousy.  Should  any  two 
combine  to  attack  us  our  empire  is  ruined  2.    This  is  of  course 

1  Lord  Beaconsfield's  voice  it  was  that  turned  the  attention  of 
England  outwards  again. — Baron  v.  Hubner,  p.  498. 

■  The  comparative  estimate  of  Expenditure  is  as  follows : — 
United  Kingdom,  Army  and  Navy,  38^  millions  a  year  (including 


Ch.  xii.]  Rocks  Ahead.  267 

a  current  opinion  in  many  branches  of  the  fighting  services  : 
and  not  only  there  ;  so  unbiassed  an  observer  as  Dr.  Geffcken 
is  as  uncompromising  a  prophet  of  woe  for  us  as  any  Admiral 
or  General  of  our  own.  If  France  and  Russia,  he  says — the 
nations  most  likely  to  ally  themselves  and  to  have  ground  of 
attack  on  us — were  to  join,  and  Germany  and  the  United 
States  were  to  stand  aloof,  our  empire  could  not  be  pre- 
served. This  requires  serious  consideration  from  English- 
men. In  presence  of  such  a  danger  not  a  word  should  be 
written  that  would  interfere  with  any  citizen  taking  the  right 
course  with  regard  to  supporting  or  opposing  proposals  for  in- 
creased war  expenditure.  If  we  do  not  organize,  and  organize 
well,  we  shall  certainly  lose  a  great  deal ;  if  either  (1)  we  are 
tired  of  our  empire,  or  (2)  we  yearn  so  entirely  for  the  tranquil 
enjoyments  of  peaceful  trade  that  we  will  not  organize  a 
competent  army  or  maintain  a  competent  navy,  with  apparatus 
of  coaling-stations  and  all  such  auxiliaries,  our  place  in  the 
world  is  lost.  We  have  seen  that  it  was  defective  organiza- 
tion, as  a  consequence  of  lack  of  public  spirit,  that  lost  France 
the  first  battle  (La  Hogue)  in  the  great  series  of  wars  with 
England.  French  historians  are  unanimous  in  confessing 
that  the  loss  of  fine  prospects  in  Canada  and  in  India  was 
due  to  unskilfulness  of  generals  and  admirals,  to  insubordina- 
tion and  lack  of  discipline  among  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  to 
a  general  enfeeblement  of  the  military  and  naval  departments 
of  State.  Disaster  came  upon  France  as  a  consequence  of 
national  carelessness  and  indolence  under  the  rule  of  the 
unworthy  successors  of  Colbert  and  Louvois. 

On  our  part  our  successes  gave  us  a  force  and  a  dash  which 
proved  irresistible.  Heavy  sacrifices  of  money  were  made, 
but  we  had  determined  not  to  stop  until  we  were  secure  in 
the  field.  If  the  force  and  dash  and  the  sacrifices  should  be  on 
the  side  of  our  opponents  now,  and  we  should  have  the  lethargy 

some  new  debts) ;  India,  17;  the  Colonies,  2 ;  total  British  Empire,  57. 
France,  36  millions;  Germany,  32;  Russian,  29;  United  States(i886), 
12.  The  expensiveness  of  our  system  and  the  dispersed  character  of 
our  territory  make  these  figures  no  correct  measure  of  our  compara- 
tive weakness.  It  looks  as  if  it  were  not  a  question  of  raising  more 
money,  but  of  spending  it  differently. 


268  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

and  dulness  and  self-indulgence  which  lost  France  the  fight 
from  the  very  start,  then  England  and  her  democracy  would 
only  be  walking  on  the  path  which  France  and  her  court 
and  effete  aristocracy  walked  along  two  centuries  ago,  and 
the  result  for  us  now  would  be  what  it  then  was  for  them. 
Instances  might  easily  be  multiplied:  Wellington  driving  the 
French  out  of  the  Peninsula ;  the  Southern  States  laid  at  the 
mercy  of  the  North  ;  France  at  the  feet  of  Germany  in  1871  ; 
Dupleix  driven  out  of  India  by  Clive,  are  all  examples  of  or- 
ganization being  the  secret  of  success. 

There  are  some  considerations,  going  not  far  from  the 
root  of  the  matter,  which  may  be  taken  into  account  by  any 
who  feel  a  shock  at  having  to  suppose  that  an  empire  and  an 
influence  constructed  by  gradual  and  apparently  natural 
processes  during  three  centuries  are  liable  to  overthrow  by  the 
chances  of  a  single  war.  It  may  appear  that  Nature  can  pro- 
duce nothing  secure  ;  that  after  all,  wise  men  may  stimulate 
and  heroes  may  carry  out  great  enterprises  for  generations  to- 
gether, and  yet  that  the  weakness  or  folly  of  a  single  genera- 
tion may  lose  the  whole.  Certainly  it  is  difficult  to  limit  powers 
of  destruction.  York  Minster  was  nearly  ruined  in  a  single 
night,  and  by  one  madman's  act.  But,  on  the  whole,  the 
weight  of  probability  is  against  the  possibility  of  such  a 
catastrophe  for  our  empire.  We  can  see  how  it  was  built 
up  ;  the  piles  and  beams  of  the  structure  are  evident,  and  the 
force  that  oversets  such  an  edifice  must  be  itself  no  mere 
national  rivalry  or  sentimental  jealousy  on  the  part  of  other 
empires,  but  an  overpowering  necessity  on  their  part  to  de- 
velop in  directions  where  we  stand  in  their  way. 

(1)  The  military  era  tends  to  pass  away,  and  to  give 
place  to  the  industrial,  and  it  is  on  the  lines  of  industry  that 
contests  between  nations  are  now  likely  to  be  waged.  If 
France  gave  way  before  Germany,  it  was  partly  because 
Germany's  industrial  progress  had  fed  her  people  and  nerved 
them  with  an  almost  unconscious  strength.  And  no  military 
weakness  on  our  part,  of  a  temporary  nature,  could  suddenly 
ruin  our  industrial  position.  It  could  do  so  only  if  the  weak- 
ness became  permanent.     If  it  came  from  disregard  of  facts, 


Ch.  xii.]  Rocks  Ahead.  269 

from  indifference,  from  neglect,  from  national  cowardice, 
a  series  of  military  defeats  would  without  fail  leave  the 
empire  a  shattered  wreck.  But  a  single  'military'  cata- 
strophe could  not  do  it ;  the  folly  of  being  unprepared  would 
be  our  reproach,  and  it  would  have  to  be  atoned  for 
severely.  But  if  the  national  heart  was  strong  and  sound, 
not  one,  nor  two,  nor  three  disasters  would  finally  depose  us 
from  our  place.  The  disaster  which  ruins  comes  upon 
nations  from  within  rather  than  from  without ;  prosperity 
has  often  acted  as  a  cankerworm — Tyre,  Carthage,  Venice, 
what  are  they  now?  It  is  upon  our  national  character  as 
well  as  upon  the  strength  of  external  forces  that  our  per- 
manent stability  depends. 

(2)  Too  much  stress  must  not  be  laid  on  the  political 
bond.  Our  '  empire '  might  be  broken  up,  our  \  colonization ' 
would  still  continue.  Nothing  can  now  alter  the  position  in 
that  respect.  We  have  colonized  North  America  and 
Australia,  we  have  secured  a  great  start  in  Africa,  we  rule 
India,  and  our  influence  on  the  sea  is  as  natural  as  the 
influence  of  the  largest  shareholder  over  the  policy  of  a  great 
company.  The  essential  thing  is  already  secured ;  a  com- 
mercial 'empire'  is  laid  down;  English  influence  in  the 
world  is  beyond  cavil  or  attack,  whether  it  be  still  exercised 
under  the  Crown  of  England  or  not.  Even  if  the  British 
empire  is  unstable,  British  commerce  and  British  civilization 
are  more  likely  to  grow  than  to  decline. 

The  alarms  of  Dr.  Geffcken  and  of  others  are  somewhat 
superficial.  The  immediate  prospect  may  be  threatening, 
and  therefore  immediate  activity  urgent ;  but  if  we  are  to 
be  long-sighted,  and  to  talk  of  days  being  numbered,  we 
must  remind  ourselves  that  behind  our  political  union  there 
is  a  considerable  economic  union,  and  behind  that  a  moral 
union,  as  results  of  our  colonization  and  empire. 

There  is  another  danger,  however,  of  a  physical  kind. 
What  are  we  doing  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  British  Isles 
we  are  living  on  capital  in  the  shape  of  our  coal  and  mineral 
resources  ?  A  chilly  feeling  comes  over  Englishmen  as  they 
reflect  that  all  the  cheaper  sources  are  being  rapidly  ex- 


2jo  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

hausted,  and  that  even  the  more  expensive  will  not  last  for 
ever.  The  survey  of  our  colonial  history  indicates  an  answer 
— the  English  race  will  be  settled  far  and  wide  before  that 
day  comes ;  other  coal-fields  in  other  parts  of  the  empire  will 
be  brought  into  use,  and  connexions  with  the  old  country  will 
not  be  wanting.  The  relative  position  of  that  part  of  the  race 
which  will  remain  at  home  will  not  then  be  so  commanding, 
but  the  future  of  the  British  nationality  is  not  to  be  limited 
by  the  physical  capacities  of  these  islands. 


Some  Problems  of  Imperial  Politics. 

The  thoughts  of  public  men  in  England  and  the  colonies 
will  be  concerned  in  the  future  with  some  problems  which 
at  this  moment  (1891)  are  unsolved.  They  differ  in  urgency  ; 
any  change  in  the  world's  politics  may  precipitate  one  or 
other  of  them. 

In  the  province  of  Government  :— 
Imperial  Federation. 
Colonial  Confederations :    Australia,  South  Africa,  the 

West  Indies. 
Relations  of  our  colonies  with  foreign  countries  :  especi- 
ally liberty  to  make  commercial  treaties. 
The   method    of  allotting  functions  in   government  to 
Amative  princes  and  chiefs  in  our  dependencies  :  espe- 
cially to  be  studied  for  the  Native  States  of  India, 
with  possibility  of   its  resumption  in   some   of  the 
Provinces. 
The  candid   renunciation   of  the   idea  of  equality   in 
our  politics.     We  cannot  carry  it  out,  and  are  not 
doing  so ;  but  possibly  we  are  hampered  by  pretending 
to  do  it. 
The  value  of  the  political  bond. 
Foreign  Relations:— 

The  French  rights  on  the  Newfoundland  shore ;  their 

position  by  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and  colonial  demands. 

The  Canadian  claims  to  share  in  Behring  Sea  Fisheries 


Ch.  xii.]       Some  Problems  of  Imperial  Politics.  271 

as  against  the  United  States  doctrine  that  it  is  a  pri- 
vate sea. 
The  French  in  New  Caledonia,  and  Australian  suspicion 

and  dislike  of  their  occupation. 
The  threefold  Protectorate  of  Samoa. 
The  occupation  of  Egypt. 
The  Opium  traffic. 
The  status  of  foreigners  in  such  nations  as  China  and 

Japan. 
The  position  of  Portugal  in  Africa,  if  it  proves  to  be  an 

obstacle  to  the  development  of  African  civilization. 
The  organization  of  our  National  Defences. 
The  co-operation  of  the  colonies  in  Imperial  Defence. 
Trade :— 

A  Commercial  Union  of  the  empire. 
Commercial  Confederations  ;  e.  g.  Australia. 
The  West  Indies,  Mauritius,  and  Natal  in  relation  to 
our  Free  Trade  policy,  in  so  far  as  it  does  not  suit 
them  but  is  compulsory  upon  them. 
Colonization  :— 
The  systematizing  of  Emigration  for  reasons  arising 

at  home. 
Its  systematization  for  better  development  of  the  colonies 

themselves. 
What  will  be  done  if  Immigration  is  resisted?  if  the 
present  colonists  insist  on  closing  their  territories 
against  further  immigration  ?  And  if  America,  especi- 
ally, insists  on  regarding  British  workmen  as  below 
the  high  standard  of  their  own  citizens,  and  there- 
fore not  to  be  admitted  ? 
Union  of  the  English  Race. 

Is  the  existence  of  a  Dark  England  to  be  a  bar  to  our 
union  with  the  more  prosperous  new  communities?  Do 
colonies  mean  to  leave  us  to  ourselves,  and  to  decline  union 
because  of  our  large  pauper  class  ? 

Is  there  any  prospect  of  union  with  the  colonies  for  re- 
sponsibilities in  the  control  of  the  destinies  of  India,  for 
example;   or  any  possibility  of  some  course  of  combined 


272  Some  General  Reflections.  [Ch.  xii. 

action  that  would  give  Europeans  and  Americans  together 
a  recognised  place  in  the  direction  of  the  Chinese  Empire 
for  a  time  ? 

The  development  of  the  composite  character  of  the  colonial 
communities.  '  English-speaking '  we  have  to  call  them,  for 
'English'  is  rapidly  becoming  a  misnomer.  The  tide  of 
German  emigration  will  certainly  influence  the  national  char- 
acter of  the  '  American '  in  ways  which  cannot  be  estimated, 
and  the  other  colonies  in  varying  extents  are  composite  too. 
It  is  misleading  for  us  to  think  that  it  is  entirely  to  England 
that  Americans  and  Colonists  look  as  their  home. 


Conclusion. 

Men  whose  minds  are  much  occupied  with  the  domestic 
interests  of  the  nation  suspect  those  who  talk  much  of  the 
1  empire '  as  high-flying  patriots  of  an  unsubstantial,  not  to  say 
vapoury,  temper ;  to  be  closely  watched  and  kept  from  doing 
harm  if  they  are  employed  in  public  affairs.  And  again, 
friends  of  liberty  have  a  suspicion  against  these  same  Im- 
perialists as  friends  and  abettors  of  despotism  and  despoiling. 
What  impression  the  record  of  Colonization  and  Empire  as  it 
has  been  sketched  in  this  book  may  make  on  this  prejudice 
in  a  reader's  mind  may  be  uncertain.  But  the  record  may  be 
fittingly  closed  by  reference  to  two  men  who  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  others  have  moulded  Englishmen's  thoughts  about 
public  affairs  ;  men,  both  of  them,  distinguished  amongst 
political  thinkers  for  the  very  two  qualities  which  are  sup- 
posed to  be  lacking  in  the  ordinary  admirer  of  our  imperial 
and  colonial  history. 

Burke  : — 'The  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  sits  at  the  head 
of  her  extensive  empire  in  two  capacities,  one  as  the  local 
legislature  of  this  island ;  the  other,  and  I  think  her  nobler 
capacity,  is  what  I  call  her  imperial  character,  in  which,  as 
from  the  throne  of  heaven,  she  guides  and  controls  them 
all.' 

This  shows  what  Burke  thought  of  the  relative  importance 
of  our  insular  and  our  imperial  public  duties  ;  but  Mill  takes 


Ch.  xii.]  Conclusion.  273 

a  still  wider  view  when  expressing  his  deliberate  opinion  upon 
our  influence  in  the  world  at  large. 

Mill  had  before  him  the  results  of  half  a  century  of 
farther  development,  when  he  withstood  the  impulse  which 
many  of  his  own  political  friends  were  giving  to  the 
Separative  movement.  In  1836  Cobden  had  declared  that 
Colonies,  like  Army  and  Navy  and  Church,  were  mere  ap- 
pendages of  aristocracy,  and  that '  John  Bull '  had  before  him 
in  the  next  fifty  years  the  task  of  '  cleansing  his  house  from 
this  stuff.'     Mill  writes  :— 

'The  imperial  connexion  has  the  advantage,  specially 
valuable  at  the  present  time,  of  adding  to  the  moral  in- 
fluence and  weight  in  the  councils  of  the  world,  of  the  Power 
which,  of  all  in  existence,  best  understands  liberty,  and, 
whatever  may  have  been  its  errors  in  the  past,  has  attained 
to  more  of  conscience  and  moral  principle  in  its  dealings 
with  foreigners  than  any  other  nation  seems  either  to  con- 
ceive as  possible,  or  recognise  as  desirable.' 

By  the  sobriety  and  solidity  of  judgment  of  Burke  and 
Mill,  by  their  experience  of  affairs  and  variety  of  intercourse 
with  men  competent  to  express  opinions,  and  by  their  con- 
stant advocacy  of  the  cause  of  liberty,  we  are  entitled  to  claim 
for  their  deliverances  a  significance  that  should  at  least 
disarm  prejudice  against  'imperial5  sympathies  and  prin- 
ciples. 

The  Greeks  placed  history  under  a  muse,  Clio,  and  they 
did  right.  The  history  of  this  empire  of  ours  is  an  epic.  The 
adventures,  the  discoveries,  the  privateering,  the  wealth,  the 
contests,  the  victories  over  nature  on  sea  and  plain,  and  over 
opposing  nations ;  the  knowledge  of  new  men  and  new 
scenes,  the  formation  of  new  nations,  their  disunions  and 
harmonies,  how  they  traded  and  how  they  became  inde- 
pendent,— all  of  these  constitute  a  movement  of  humanity 
which  makes  our  dullest  prose,  stiff  with  lists  and  figures,  tell 
a  story  of  the  old  heroic  kind.  The  names  of  great  men, 
and  men  who  were  not  great  but  only  interesting ;  of  plain, 
good  men,  and  of  men  of  romantic  and  even  of  heroic  mould, 
star  its  pages  ;  and  the  movement  of  the  peoples  whom  they 

T 


274  Some  General  Reflections. 

led  has  inaugurated  a  new  era  for  the  race.  Historians  and 
biographers  have  done  well  for  us ;  but  perhaps  if  Shakspeare 
had  had  Hakluyt  before  him  as  well  as  Hollinshed  we  should 
in  our  youth  have  been  won  into  profounder  sympathy  with 
this  element  of  our  national  story,  and  we  should  have  better 
understood  the  mission  of  England  in  the  world. 


APPENDIX:   BOOKS. 


The  literature  of  Colonial  History  is  far  too  extensive  to 
allow  of  a  Bibliography  being  given.  Frequent  references 
to  books  are  made  in  the  text,  and  readers  will  find  it  easy 
to  pursue  the  study  by  referring  in  the  catalogues  of  the 
libraries  to  which  they  have  access  to  the  names  (i)  of  the 
various  Colonies,  and  (2)  of  the  persons  who  have  played 
prominent  parts.  The  following  lists  are  drawn  up  by 
way  of  suggestion  : — 

I.    General  Works. 

Adam  Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  IV.  Chap.  v. 

Merivale's  Lectures  on  Colonization  (1841  and  1861).  Out  of  print. 

Payne,  European  Colonies. 

Seeley,  Expansion  of  England. 

Geffcken,  The  British  Empire. 

von  Hiibner,  Through  the  British  Empire. 

Dilke,  Greater  Britain  (1868) ;  Problems  (1890). 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  De  la  Colonisation  (Guillaumin,  10  fr.). 

Roscher,  Kolonien,  kolonial  Politik  tmd  Auswanderung. 

Freeman,  General  Sketch  of  European  History. 

II.    Original  Sources. 

Voyages  and  Discoveries  :  Collections  of  Hakhiyt  (selections,  4  vols. 
H.  Gray,  48^.);  Purchas ;  Harris  (1705);   Callander  (1766). 
Dalrymple  (1770),  and  Burney  (1803),  Pacific  Ocean  ;  Pinker- 
ton,  17  vols.  (1808),  and  Kerr,  18  vols.  (181 1-24),  general. 
T2 


276  Appendix. 

Voyages  of  Dampier,  Anson,  Byron  and  Cook  (by  Hawkes- 
worth)  ;  Cook,  Second  and  Third  Voyages;  Tasman,  Vancouver, 
Phillip,  Flinders,  and  Darwin. 

Original  Histories :  John  Smith's  Virginia ;  Hutchinson's  Massa- 
chusetts ;  Ligonj Barbados ;  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  1^74- 
1629,  6  vols.  (ed.  Sainsbury). 

Travel  and  Discovery :  under  the  names  of  the  Countries  and  of  the 
Travellers  and  Discoverers. 

III.    Specific  Subjects. 

Helps,  Spanish  Conquest  of  America  ;  Bryan  Edwards,  West  Indies  ; 
The  European  Settlements  in  America  (Burke  or  Campbell)  ; 
Palfrey,  New  England',  Bancroft,  America;  O'Callaghan, 
New  Netherlands  ;  H.  Cabot  Lodge,  The  English  Colonies  in 
America ;  Parkman,  series  of  works  on  The  French  in  America  ; 
Westgarth,  Australia  (1861);  ]nng,Austrah'a  (1884) ;  Gisborne, 
New  Zealand  (1888);  Greswell,  Our  South  African  Empire, 
1885  ;  Rambosson,  Les  Colonies  Francaises,  1868  ;  De  Luque, 
Historia  de  los  Establecimientos  Ultramarinos,  3  vols.  1784 
(a  Spanish  account  of  European  Colonization)  ;  Lopes  de  Lima, 
Possessors  Portugueras,  3  vols.,  1884  (Portuguese). 

Histories  of  India :  James  Mill,  Elphinstone,  Hunter,  Lethbridge, 
Wheeler;  '  Pule  rs  of  India*  series  (ed.  Hunter). 

Burke,  Speeches  on  America  ;  Mill,  Representative  Government  and 
Political  Economy ;  Macaulay,  Essays  on  Clive,  Chatham, 
Warren  Hastings,  Frederick  the  Great.  Lives  of  Columbus, 
Franklin,  Washington,  Wilberforce,  Colbert. 

Wakefield,  Art  of  Colonization  (1849) ;  Whately,  on  Secondary 
Punishments  (1839). 

Pownall,  Brougham,  Lewis,  Grey,  Creasy,  Adderley,  Mills,  Todd, 
Munro,  on  Colonial  Government. 

Histories  of  Commerce  and  Industry :  Macpherson,  Porter,  Leone 
Levi,  Cunningham  (1st  edition). 

Anthropology  (Tylor),  and  Ethnography  (Reclus)  in  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica,  and  references. 

Anderson,  History  of  the  Colonial  Church,  3  vols.,  1856  ;  Biographies 
of  Missionaries. 

Applied  Geography,  J.  S.  Keltie  (1890). 


Appendix.  277 

IV.     Description  and  Statistics. 

Her  Majesty 's  Colonies,  1886. 

Colonial  Year  Book  (Annual). 

The  Colonial  Office  List  (Annual). 

The  India  Office  List  (Annual). 

Statistical  Abstracts  for  the  Colonies,  and  for  India  (Annual). 

Government  publications. 
Lucas,  Historical  Geography  of  the  Colonies. 
Philip,  Atlas  of  the  British  Empire,  with  Notes,  is. 

V.     Discussions  of  Current  Topics. 

Royal  Colonial  Institute,  Proceedings,  Annual  from  1869,  con- 
taining Papers  on  every  part  of  the  empire  by  specialists,  e.g. 
New  Zealand,  Sir.  J.  Vogel ;  Canada,  Sir  A.  Gait ;  South 
Africa,  Sir  B.  Frere  and  Sir  C.  Warren  ;  Australasian 
Finance,  Westgarth  ;  Australasian  Defence,  Gen.  Sir  B. 
Edwards  ;  Native  Princes  of  India,  Sir.  L.  Griffin  ;  Netv 
Industrial  Era  in  India,  SirW.  Hunter;  Practical  Coloni- 
zation, Sir  F.  deWinton  ;  Emigration,  Sir  F.  Young. 

Colonization  and  Emigration  ;  State  Colonization,  Earl  of  Meath  ; 
Reports  of  various  Commissions  and  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittees. 

Speeches  of  Lord  Dufferin  and  Sir  II.  Parkes. 

De  Vogue,  On  Africa,  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  Dec.  1st,  1890  ; 
White,  A.  S.,  Development  of  Africa,  1890. 

Imperial  Federation  :  Books,  papers,  or  speeches  by  Lord  Lome, 
Lord  Norton,  Lord  Thring,  W.  E.  Forster,  Professor  Free- 
man, Goldwin  Smith,  Sir  G.  Bowen,  Sir  R.  Temple,  Sir  F. 
Young,  and  by  Colonists,  Sir  A.  Gait,  Sir  J.  Vogel,  Sir  G. 
Stout,  Sir  G.  Berry,  F.  Labilliere,  W.  Westgarth,  and  the 
publications  of  the  Imperial  Federation  League. 

Colonial  Conference  of  1887,  Peport  of  Proceedings. 


UNIVERSITY 
EXTENSION  MANUALS 

A  NEW  SERIES  OF 
USEFUL  AND  IMPORTANT  BOOKS 

EDITED    BY    PROFESSOR   WM.    KNIGHT 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S   SONS,   Publishers 


T^HIS  Series,  to  be  published  by  John  Murray  in 
*  England  and  Charles  Scribner's  Sons  in  America, 
is  the  outgrowth  of  the  University  Extension  move- 
ment, and  is  designed  to  supply  the  need  so  widely 
felt  of  authorized  books  for  study  and  reference  both 
by  students  and  by  the  general  public. 

The  aim  of  these  Manuals  is  to  educate  rather 
than  to  inform.  In  their  preparation,  details  will  be 
avoided  except  when  they  illustrate  the  working  of 
general  laws  and  the  development  of  principles  ;  while 
the  historical  evolution  of  both  the  literary  and 
scientific  subjects,  as  well  as  their  philosophical  sig- 
nificance, will  be  kept  in  view. 

The  remarkable  success  which  has  attended  Uni- 
versity Extension  in  England  has  been  largely  due  to 
the  union  of  scientific  with  popular  treatment,  and  of 
simplicity  with  thoroughness. 

This  movement,  however,  can  only  reach  those 
resident  in  the  larger  centres  of  population,  while  all 
over  the  country   there  are  thoughtful  persons  who 


UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION   MANUALS 


desire  the  same  kind  of  teaching.  It  is  for  them  also 
that  this  Series  is  designed.  Its  aim  is  to  supply  the 
general  reader  with  the  same  kind  of  teaching  as  is 
given  in  lectures,  and  to  reflect  the  spirit  which  has 
characterized  the  movement,  viz.,  the  combination  of 
principles  with  facts  and  of  methods  with  results. 

The  Manuals  are  also  intended  to  be  contributions 
to  the  literature  of  the  subjects  with  which  they  re- 
spectively deal  quite  apart  from  University  Extension; 
and  some  of  them  will  be  found  to  meet  a  general 
rather  than  a  special  want. 

They  will  be  issued  simultaneously  in  England  and 
America.  Volumes  dealing  with  separate  sections  of 
Literature,  Science,  Philosophy,  History,  and  Art,  have 
been  assigned  to  representative  literary  men,  to  Uni- 
versity Professors,  or  to  Extension  Lecturers  connected 
with  Oxford,  Cambridge,  London,  and  the  Universities 
of  Scotland  arid  Ireland. 

NOW  READY 

THE   USE   AND   ABUSE   OF   MONEY 

By  Dr.  W.  Cunningham,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
1 2 mo,  $1.00,  net. 
CONTENTS— political  economy  with  assumptions  and 

WITHOUT  —  INDUSTRY  WITHOUT  CAPITAL — CAPITALIST  ERA  — 
MATERIAL  PROGRESS  AND  MORAL  INDIFFERENCE — THE  CONTROL 
OF  CAPITAL  — THE  FORMATION  OF  CAPITAL — THE  INVESTMENT 
OF  CAPITAL — CAPITAL  IN  ACTION — THE  REPLACEMENT  OF 
CAPITAL — THE  DIRECTION  OF  CAPITAL — PERSONAL  RESPONSI- 
BILITY— DUTY  IN  REGARD  TO  EMPLOYING  CAPITAL — DUTY  IN 
REGARD  TO  THE  RETURNS  ON  CAPITAL — THE  ENJOYMENT  OF 
WEALTH. 

Dr.  Cunningham's  book  is  intended  for  those  who  are  already 
familiar  with  the  outlines  of  the  subject,  and  is  meant  to  help 
them   to  think   on  topics   about   which   everybody  talks.     It  is 


UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  MANUALS 


essentially  a  popular  treatise,  and  the  headings  of  the  three  parts, 
Social  Problems,  Practical  Questions,  and  Personal  Duty,  give  a 
broad  view  of  the  large  scope  of  the  book.  The  subject  is 
Capital  in  its  relation  to  Social  Progress,  and  the  title  emphasizes 
the  element  of  personal  responsibility  that  enters  into  the  questions 
raised.  The  discussion  is  as  thorough  as  it  is  practical,  the 
author's  main  purpose  being  to  enlighten  the  lay  reader.  The 
novelty  of  his  point  of  view  and  the  clearness  of  his  style  unite  to 
make  the  book  both  interesting  and  valuable.  The  volume  con- 
tains a  syllabus  of  subjects  and  a  list  of  books  for  reference  for 
the  use  of  those  who  may  wish  to  pursue  the  study  further. 

THE   FINE   ARTS 
By  G.  Baldwin  Brown,  Professor  of   Fine  Arts  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh.     i2mo,  with  Illus- 
trations, $1.00,  net. 
CONTENTS — Part  I. — art  as  the  expression  of  popu- 
lar   FEELINGS    AND    IDEALS  \ — THE    BEGINNINGS   OF    ART — THE 
FESTIVAL  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO    THE  FORM   AND    SPIRIT  OF  CLASSI- 
CAL ART MEDIAEVAL  FLORENCE  AND  HER  PAINTERS.      Part  IT. — 

THE  FORMAL  CONDITIONS  OF  ARTISTIC  EXPRESSION  \  —  SOME 
ELEMENTS  OF  EFFECT  IN  THE  ARTS  OF  FORM — THE  WORK  OF 
ART  AS  SIGNIFICANT  —  THE  WORK  OF  ART  AS  BEAUTIFUL. 
Part  III. — THE  ARTS  OF  FORM  '. — ARCHITECTURAL  BEAUTY  IN 
RELATION  TO  CONSTRUCTION — THE  CONVENTIONS  OF  SCULPTURE 
— PAINTING   OLD    AND    NEW. 

The  whole  field  of  the  fine-arts  of  painting,  sculpture  and 
architecture,  their  philosophy,  function  and  historic  accomplish- 
ment, is  covered  in  Professor  Baldwin  Brown's  compact  but  ex- 
haustive manual.  The  work  is  divided  into  three  parts,  the  first 
considering  art  as  the  expression  of  popular  feelings  and  ideas — 
a  most  original  investigation  of  the  origin  and  development  of 
the  aesthetic  impulse  ;  the  second  discussing  the  formal  conditions 
of  artistic  expression  ;  and  the  third  treating  the  "  arts  of  form  " 
in  their  theory  and  practice  and  giving  a  luminous  exposition  of 
the  significance  of  the  great  historic  movements  in  architecture, 
sculpture  and  painting  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present. 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL 

Being  the  Outlines  of  the  History  of  Aesthetics.  By 
William  Knight,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  St.  Andrews.     i2mo,  $1.00,  net. 

CONTENTS  —  INTRODUCTORY  —  PREHISTORIC  ORIGINS  — 
ORIENTAL  ART  AND  SPECULATION— THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  GREECE 


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— THE  NEOPLATONISTS — THE  GRAECO-ROMAN  PERIOD — MEDIAE- 
VALISM  —  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  GERMANY  —  OF  FRANCE — OF 
ITALY— OF   HOLLAND — OF  BRITAIN — OF   AMERICA. 

Not  content  with  presenting  an  historical  sketch  of  past  opin- 
ion and  tendency  on  the  subject  of  the  Beautiful,  Prof.  Knight 
shows  how  these  philosophical  theories  have  been  evolved,  how 
they  have  been  the  outcome  of  social  as  well  as  of  intellectual 
causes,  and  have  often  been  the  product  of  obscure  phenomena 
in  the  life  of  a  nation.  Thus  a  deep  human  interest  is  given  to 
his  synopsis  of  speculative  thought  on  the  subject  of  Beauty  and 
to  his  analysis  of  the  art  school  corresponding  to  each  period 
from  the  time  of  the  Egyptians  down  to  the  present  day.  He 
traces  the  sequence  of  opinion  in  each  country  as  expressed  in  its 
literature  and  its  art  works,  and  shows  how  doctrines  of  art  are 
based  upon  theories  of  Beauty,  and  how  these  theories  often  have 
their  roots  in  the  customs  of  society  itself. 


ENGLISH    COLONIZATION    AND    EMPIRE 

By  Alfred  Caldecott,  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. i2mo,  with  Maps  and  Diagrams,  $1.00, 
net. 

CONTENTS — PIONEER  PERIOD — INTERNATIONAL  STRUGGLE 
— DEVELOPMENT  AND  SEPARATION  OF  AMERICA — THE  ENGLISH 
IN  INDIA — RECONSTRUCTION  AND  FRESH  DEVELOPMENT — GOV- 
ERNMENT OF  THE  EMPIRE — TRADE  AND  TRADE  POLTCY — SUPPLY 
OF  LABOR— NATIVE  RACES — EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION— GEN- 
ERAL  REFLECTIONS — BOOKS   OF   REFERENCE. 

The  diffusion  of  European,  and,  more  particularly,  of  English, 
civilization  over  the  face  of  the  inhabited  and  habitable  world  is 
the  subject  of  this  book.  The  treatment  of  this  great  theme  covers 
the  origin  and  the  historical,  political,  economical  and  ethnological 
development  of  the  English  colonies,  the  moral,  intellectual,  in- 
dustrial and  social  aspects  of  the  question  being  also  considered. 
There  is  thus  spread  before  the  reader  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
British  colonies,  great  and  small,  from  their  origin  until  the  present 
time,  with  a  summary  of  the  wars  and  other  great  events  which 
have  occurred  in  the  progress  of  this  colonizing  work,  and  with 
a  careful  examination  of  some  of  the  most  important  questions, 
economical,  commercial  and  political,  which  now  affect  the  rela- 
tion of  the  colonies  and  the  parent  nation.  The  maps  and  dia- 
grams are  an  instructive  and  valuable  addition  to  the  book. 


UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  MANUALS 


IN  PREPARATION 

FRENCH    LITERATURE.    By  H.  G.  Keene. 

THE  REALM  OF  NATURE.  With  Maps  and  Illustrations.  By 
Hugh  R.  Mill,  University  of  Edinburgh. 

THE  STUDY  OF  ANIMAL  LIFE.  By  T.  Arthur  Thomson, 
University  of  Edinburgh. 

THE  DAILY  LIFE  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  THE 
ROMANS.     By  W.  Anderson,  Oriel  College,  Oxford. 

THE     ELEMENTS    OF    ETHICS.      By  John    H.    Muirhead, 
Balliol  College,  Oxford. 

OUTLINES  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE.  By  William 
Renton,  University  of  St.  Andrews. 

SHAKESPEARE  AND  HIS  PREDECESSORS  IN  THE 
ENGLISH    DRAMA.     By  F.  S.  Boas,  Balliol  College,  Oxford. 

THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  By  C.  E.  Malley,  Balliol 
College,  Oxford. 

LOGIC.  INDUCTIVE  AND  DEDUCTIVE.  By  William 
Minto,  University  of  Aberdeen. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ASTRONOMY.  By  Arthur  Berry, 
King's  College,  Cambridge. 

THE  ENGLISH  POETS,  FROM  BLAKE  TO  TENNY- 
SON.    By  the  Rev.  Stofford  A.  Brooke,  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

ENERGY  IN  NATURE.  An  Introduction  to  Physical  Science.  By 
John  Cox,  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

OUTLINES  OF  MODERN  BOTANY.  By  Prof.  Patrick 
Geddes,  University  College,  Dundee. 

THE  JACOBEAN  POETS.  By  Edmund  Gosse,  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge. 

TEXT   BOOK   OF  THE    HISTORY   OF   EDUCATION. 

By  Prof.  Simon  S.  Laurie,  University  of  Edinburgh. 

BRITISH  DOMINION  IN  INDIA.  By  Sir  Alfred  Lyall, 
K.  C.  B.,  K.  C.  S.  I. 

THE  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  THE  SENSES.  By  Prof.  Mc- 
Kendrick,  University  of  Glasgow,  and  Dr.  Snodgrass,  Physiological 
Laboratory,  Glasgow. 

COMPARATIVE  RELIGION.  By  Prof.  Menzies,  University  of 
St.  Andrews. 

THE  ENGLISH  NOVEL  FROM  ITS  ORIGIN  TO  SIR 
WALTER  SCOTT.  By  Prof.  Raleigh,  University  College, 
Liverpool. 

STUDIES  IN  MODERN  GEOLOGY.  By  Dr.  R.  D.  Roberts, 
Clare  College,  Cambridge. 

PROBLEMS    OF     POLITICAL    ECONOMY.      By    M.  E. 

Sadler,  Senior  Student  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

PSYCHOLOGY:   A    HISTORICAL    SKETCH.      By  Prof. 

Sf.th,  University  of  St.  Andrews. 

MECHANICS.  By  Prof.  James  Stuart,  M.  P.,  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge. 


THE  GREAT  EDUCATORS. 

Edited  by  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Ph.D.    Sold 
separately.     Each  vol.,  i2mo,  net,  $1.00. 

A  series  of  volumes  giving  concise,  comprehensive  accounts 
of  the  leading  movements  in  educational  thought,  grouped  about 
the  personalities  that  have  influenced  them.  The  treatment  of 
each  theme  is  to  be  individual  and  biographic  as  well  as 
institutional.  The  writers  are  well-known  students  of  education, 
and  it  is  expected  that  the  series,  when  completed,  will  furnish  a 
genetic  account  of  ancient  education,  the  rise  of  the  Christian 
schools,  the  foundation  and  growth  of  universities,  and  that  the 
great  modern  movements  suggested  by  the  names  of  the  Jesuit 
Order,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  Herbart,  Dr.  Arnold  and 
Horace  Mann,  will  be  adequately  described  and  criticised. 

ARISTOTLE,  and  the  Ancient  Educational  Ideals.  By 
Thomas  Davidson,  M,A  ,  LL.D.      Nearly  Heady. 

ALCUIN,  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian  Schools.  By  Andrew 
F.  West,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Latin  and  Pedagogics  in 
Princeton  University.     ATearly  Ready. 

ABELARD,  and  the  Origin  and  Early  Histoiy  of  Univer- 
sities. By  Jules  Gabriel  Compayre,  Rector  of  the 
Academy  of  Poitieis,  France.     Nearly  Ready. 

LOYOLA,-  and  the  Educational  System  of  the  Jesuits.  By 
Rev.  Thomas  Hughes,  S.  J.,  of  Detroit  College.     Ready. 

PESTALOZZI ;  or,  the  Friend  and  Student  of  Children. 
By  J.  G.  Fitch,  LL.D.,  Her  Majesty's  Inspector  of  Schools. 
In  Preparation. 

FROEBEL.  By  H.  Courthope  Bowen,  M.A.,  Lecturer  on 
Education  in  the  University  of  Cambridge.     /*  Preparation. 

HORACE  MANN;    or,   Public  Education  in  the  United 

States.     By  the  Editor.     In  Preparation. 
Other  volumes   on    "Rousseau;    or,    Education   According    to 

Nature,"  "Herbart;  or,   Modern  German  Education,"  and 

on  "  Thomas  Arnold  ;  or,  the  English  Education  of  To-day," 

are  in  preparation. 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 
743  &  745   Broadway,  New  York. 


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LOAN  DEPT. 

•   Ana  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 


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